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159-502: The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow was a delta-winged interceptor aircraft designed and built by Avro Canada . The CF-105 held the promise of Mach 2 speeds at altitudes exceeding 50,000 feet (15,000 m) and was intended to serve as the Royal Canadian Air Force 's (RCAF) primary interceptor into the 1960s and beyond. The Arrow was the culmination of a series of design studies begun in 1953 that examined improved versions of

318-628: A 6,000 ft (1,830 m) runway; a Mach 1.5 cruising speed at an altitude of 70,000 ft (21,000 m) ; and manoeuvrability for 2  g turns with no loss of speed or altitude at Mach 1.5 and 50,000 ft . The specification required five minutes from starting the aircraft's engines to reaching 50,000 ft altitude and Mach 1.5. It was also to have turn-around time on the ground of less than 10 minutes . An RCAF team led by Ray Foottit visited US aircraft producers and surveyed British and French manufacturers before concluding that no existing or planned aircraft could fulfill these requirements. In 1955 Avro estimated

477-498: A 1946 document. However, it is not clear where these terms came from, as it does not appear the US pilots carried out such tests. In his 1990 book Me-163 , former Messerschmitt Me 163 "Komet" pilot Mano Ziegler claims that his friend, test pilot Heini Dittmar , broke the sound barrier while diving the rocket plane, and that several people on the ground heard the sonic booms. He claims that on 6 July 1944, Dittmar, flying Me 163B V18, bearing

636-468: A broad-span biconical delta, with each side bulging upwards towards the rear in a manner characteristic of the modern Rogallo wing . During the following year, in America U. G. Lee and W. A. Darrah patented a similar biconical delta winged aeroplane with an explicitly rigid wing. It also incorporated a proposal for a flight control system and covered both gliding and powered flight. None of these early designs

795-460: A chart of wind tunnel measurements comparing the drag of a wing to the velocity of the air. During these explanations he would state "See how the resistance of a wing shoots up like a barrier against higher speed, as we approach the speed of sound." The next day, the London newspapers were filled with statements about a "sound barrier." Whether or not this is the first use of the term is debatable, but by

954-475: A cracking sound. This finding is theoretical and disputed by others in the field. Meteorites in the Earth's upper atmosphere usually travel at higher than Earth's escape velocity, which is much faster than sound. The existence of the sound barrier was evident to aerodynamicists before any direct in aircraft evidence was available. In particular, the very simple theory of thin airfoils at supersonic speeds produced

1113-456: A curve that went to infinite drag at Mach 1, dropping with increasing speed. This could be seen in tests using projectiles fired from guns, a common method for checking the stability of various projective shapes. As the projectile slowed from its initial speed and began to approach the speed of sound, it would undergo a rapid increase in drag and slow much more rapidly. It was understood that the drag did not go infinite, or it would be impossible for

1272-435: A deeper structure for a given aerofoil section. This both enhances its weight-saving characteristic and provides greater internal volume for fuel and other items, without a significant increase in drag. However, on supersonic designs the opportunity is often taken to use a thinner aerofoil instead, in order to actually reduce drag. Like any wing, at low speeds a delta wing requires a high angle of attack to maintain lift. At

1431-405: A delta foreplane just in front of and above the main delta wing. Patented in 1963, this configuration was flown for the first time on the company's Viggen combat aircraft in 1967. The close coupling modifies the airflow over the wing, most significantly when flying at high angles of attack. In contrast to the classic tail-mounted elevators, the canards add to the total lift as well as stabilising

1590-487: A distinct "corner" where it began to suddenly rise. This speed was different for different wing planforms and cross sections, and became known as the "critical Mach". According to British aerodynamicist W. F. Hilton, of Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft , the term itself was created accidentally. He was giving demonstrations at the annual show day at the National Physical Laboratory in 1935 where he demonstrated

1749-597: A dive. The basic CF-100 continued to improve through this period, and the advantages were continually eroded. When a CF-100 broke the sound barrier on 18 December 1952, interest in the CF-103 waned. At the time we laid down the design of the CF-105, there was a somewhat emotional controversy going on in the United States on the relative merits of the delta plan form versus the straight wing for supersonic aircraft ... our choice of

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1908-436: A helium balloon and become the first parachutist to break the sound barrier. The launch was scheduled for 9 October 2012, but was aborted due to adverse weather; subsequently the capsule was launched instead on 14 October. Baumgartner's feat also marked the 65th anniversary of U.S. test pilot Chuck Yeager 's successful attempt to break the sound barrier in an aircraft. Baumgartner landed in eastern New Mexico after jumping from

2067-519: A high-speeds mission, 630 nmi radius on a low-speed mission, Ferry range is not given, but estimated at 1,500 nmi." Avro submitted their modified C105 design in May 1953, essentially a two-man version of the C104/2. A change to a "shoulder-mounted" wing allowed rapid access to the aircraft's internals, weapons bay, and engines. The new design also allowed the wing to be built as a single structure sitting on

2226-414: A limit dangerous to exceed. During WWII and immediately thereafter, a number of claims were made that the sound barrier had been broken in a dive. The majority of these purported events can be dismissed as instrumentation errors. The typical airspeed indicator (ASI) uses air pressure differences between two or more points on the aircraft, typically near the nose and at the side of the fuselage, to produce

2385-407: A maximum speed of Mach 1.7+ before intentionally crashing into the water. Experiments showed the need for only a small number of design changes, mainly involving the wing profile and positioning. To improve high-alpha performance, the leading edge of the wing was drooped, especially on outer sections, a dog-tooth was introduced at about half-span to control spanwise flow, and the entire wing given

2544-464: A new design of leading edge for the wing. On 12 January 1948, a Northrop uncrewed rocket sled became the first land vehicle to break the sound barrier. At a military test facility at Muroc Air Force Base (now Edwards AFB ), California , it reached a peak speed of 1,019 mph (1,640 km/h) before jumping the rails. On 15 October 1997, in a vehicle designed and built by a team led by Richard Noble , Royal Air Force pilot Andy Green became

2703-596: A partner with American command and control. The USAF was in the process of completely automating their air defence system with the SAGE project, and offered Canada the opportunity to share this sensitive information for the air defence of North America. One aspect of the SAGE system was the Bomarc nuclear-tipped anti-aircraft missile. This led to studies on basing Bomarcs in Canada in order to push

2862-526: A press release stating that Lts. Harold E. Comstock and Roger Dyar had exceeded the speed of sound during test dives in a Republic P-47 Thunderbolt . It is widely agreed that this was due to inaccurate ASI readings. In similar tests, the North American P-51 Mustang demonstrated limits at Mach 0.85, with every flight over Mach 0.84 causing the aircraft to be damaged by vibration. One of the highest recorded instrumented Mach numbers attained for

3021-624: A propeller aircraft is the Mach 0.891 for a Spitfire PR XI , flown during dive tests at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough in April 1944. The Spitfire, a photo-reconnaissance variant, the Mark XI, fitted with an extended "rake type" multiple pitot system , was flown by Squadron Leader J. R. Tobin to this speed, corresponding to a corrected true airspeed (TAS) of 606 mph. In

3180-671: A result of the X-1's initial supersonic flight, the National Aeronautics Association voted its 1947 Collier Trophy to be shared by the three main participants in the program. Honored at the White House by President Harry S. Truman were Larry Bell for Bell Aircraft, Captain Yeager for piloting the flights, and John Stack for the NACA contributions. Jackie Cochran was the first woman to break

3339-548: A result, the foreign demand for the Avro Arrow had declined substantially. Canada's alternative to the Arrow was to purchase some American McDonnell F-101 Voodoo interceptors and Bomarc B missiles . The decision immediately put 14,528 Avro employees, as well as nearly 15,000 other employees in the Avro supply chain of outside suppliers out of work. Declassified records show Avro management

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3498-400: A semi- monocoque frame and multi-spar wing. The aircraft used a measure of magnesium and titanium in the fuselage, the latter limited largely to the area around the engines and to fasteners. Titanium was still expensive and not widely used because it was difficult to machine. The Arrow's thin wing required aviation's first 4,000 lb/in (28 MPa) hydraulic system to supply enough force to

3657-443: A shock body beneath the wing creates an attached shockwave and the high pressure associated with the wave provides significant lift without increasing drag. Variants of the delta wing plan offer improvements to the basic configuration. Cropped delta  – tip is cut off. This helps maintain lift outboard and reduce wingtip flow separation (stalling) at high angles of attack. Most deltas are cropped to at least some degree. In

3816-420: A slight negative camber which helped control trim drag and pitch-up. The area rule principle, made public in 1952, was also applied to the design. This resulted in several changes including the addition of a tailcone, sharpening the radar nose profile, thinning the intake lips, and reducing the cross-sectional area of the fuselage below the canopy. The construction of the airframe was fairly conventional, with

3975-607: A speed figure. At high speed, the various compression effects that lead to the sound barrier also cause the ASI to go non-linear and produce inaccurately high or low readings, depending on the specifics of the installation. This effect became known as "Mach jump". Before the introduction of Mach meters , accurate measurements of supersonic speeds could only be made remotely, normally using ground-based instruments. Many claims of supersonic speeds were found to be far below this speed when measured in this fashion. In 1942, Republic Aviation issued

4134-461: A subsequent flight, Squadron Leader Anthony Martindale achieved Mach 0.92, but it ended in a forced landing after over-revving damaged the engine. Hans Guido Mutke claimed to have broken the sound barrier on 9 April 1945 in the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet aircraft. He states that his ASI pegged itself at 1,100 kilometres per hour (680 mph). Mutke reported not just transonic buffeting , but

4293-757: A subsidiary of the Hawker Siddeley Group in 1945, initially handling repair and maintenance work for aircraft at the Malton, Ontario Airport, today known as Toronto Pearson International Airport . The next year the company began the design of Canada's first jet fighter for the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), the Avro CF-100 Canuck all-weather interceptor. The Canuck underwent a lengthy and troubled prototype stage before entering service seven years later in 1953. Nevertheless, it went on to become one of

4452-406: A sufficiently high angle the wing exhibits flow separation , together with an associated high drag. Ordinarily, this flow separation leads to a loss of lift known as the stall . However, for a sharply-swept delta wing, as air spills up round the leading edge it flows inwards to generate a characteristic vortex pattern over the upper surface. The lower extremity of this vortex remains attached to

4611-495: A system, it was one of the first of its kind, and was problematic. By February 1959, the five aircraft had completed the majority of the company test program and were progressing to the RCAF acceptance trials. From 1953, some senior Canadian military officials at the chiefs of staffs began to question the program. The chiefs of staff of the army and navy were both strongly opposed to the Arrow, since "substantial funds were being diverted to

4770-553: A tailless delta was based mainly on the compromise of attempting to achieve structural and aero elastic efficiency, with a very thin wing, and yet, at the same time, achieving the large internal fuel capacity required for the specified range. Another solution to the high-speed problem is the delta wing . The delta wing had many of the same advantages of the swept wing in terms of transonic and supersonic performance, but offered much more internal room and overall surface area. This provided more room for fuel, an important consideration given

4929-495: A top-secret project with Miles Aircraft to develop the world's first aircraft capable of breaking the sound barrier. The project resulted in the development of the prototype Miles M.52 turbojet-powered aircraft, which was designed to reach 1,000 mph (417 m/s; 1,600 km/h) (over twice the existing speed record) in level flight, and to climb to an altitude of 36,000 ft (11 km) in 1 minute 30 seconds. A number of advanced features were incorporated into

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5088-435: A world record 128,100 feet (39,045 m), or 24.26 miles, and broke the sound barrier as he traveled at speeds up to 833.9 mph (1342 km/h, or Mach 1.26). In the press conference after his jump, it was announced that he was in freefall for 4 minutes 18 seconds, the second longest freefall after the 1960 jump of Joseph Kittinger for 4 minutes 36 seconds. In October 2014, Alan Eustace ,

5247-408: Is a function of the rotational speed and the length of the blade. As the engine power increased, longer blades were needed to apply this power to the air while operating at the most efficient RPM of the engine. The velocity of the air is also a function of the forward speed of the aircraft. When the aircraft speed is high enough, the tips reach transonic speeds. Shock waves form at the blade tips and sap

5406-434: Is known to have successfully flown although, in 1904, Lavezzani's hang glider featuring independent left and right triangular wings had left the ground, and Dunne's other tailless swept designs based on the same principle would fly. The practical delta wing was pioneered by German aeronautical designer Alexander Lippisch in the 1930s, using a thick cantilever wing without any tail. His first such designs, for which he coined

5565-538: Is possible that this produced supersonic performance as high as Mach 2, but this was not due solely to the engine itself. In contrast, the German V-2 ballistic missile routinely broke the sound barrier in flight, for the first time on 3 October 1942. By September 1944, V-2s routinely achieved Mach 4 (1,200 m/s, or 3044 mph) during terminal descent. In 1942, the United Kingdom 's Ministry of Aviation began

5724-402: Is still sometimes used today to refer to aircraft approaching supersonic flight in this high drag regime. Flying faster than sound produces a sonic boom . In dry air at 20 °C (68 °F), the speed of sound is 343 metres per second (about 767 mph, 1234 km/h or 1,125 ft/s). The term came into use during World War II when pilots of high-speed fighter aircraft experienced

5883-520: The Stammkennzeichen alphabetic code VA+SP, was measured traveling at a speed of 1,130 km/h (702 mph). However, no evidence of such a flight exists in any of the materials from that period, which were captured by Allied forces and extensively studied. Dittmar had been officially recorded at 1,004.5 km/h (623.8 mph) in level flight on 2 October 1941 in the prototype Me 163A V4 . He reached this speed at less than full throttle, as he

6042-513: The compound delta , double delta or cranked arrow , the leading edge is not straight. Typically the inboard section has increased sweepback, creating a controlled high-lift vortex without the need for a foreplane. Examples include the Saab Draken fighter, the experimental General Dynamics F-16XL , and the Hawker Siddeley HS. 138 VTOL concept. The ogee delta (or ogival delta ) used on

6201-578: The Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck . After considerable study, the RCAF selected a dramatically more powerful design, and serious development began in March 1955. The aircraft was intended to be built directly from the production line, skipping the traditional hand-built prototype phase. The first Arrow Mk. 1, RL-201, was rolled out to the public on 4 October 1957, the same day as the launch of Sputnik I . Flight testing began with RL-201 on 25 March 1958, and

6360-476: The Dassault Rafale use a combination of canard foreplanes and a delta wing. Like other tailless aircraft , the tailless delta wing is not suited to high wing loadings and requires a large wing area for a given aircraft weight. The most efficient aerofoils are unstable in pitch and the tailless type must use a less efficient design and therefore a bigger wing. Techniques used include: The main advantages of

6519-684: The English Electric Lightning . The French government expressed an interest in the Iroquois engine for an enlarged version of the Dassault Mirage IV bomber, the Mirage IVB. This was one of several engines being considered, including the Olympus, with an order for 300 Iroquois being considered. Acting on media speculation that the Iroquois engine program was also in jeopardy of being cancelled,

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6678-564: The F-106 Delta Dart and B-58 Hustler . At high supersonic speeds, the shock cone from the leading edge root angles further back to lie along the wing surface behind the leading edge. It is no longer possible for the sideways flow to occur and the aerodynamic characteristics change considerably. It is in this flight regime that the waverider design, as used on the North American XB-70 Valkyrie , becomes practicable. Here,

6837-515: The Hughes Falcon guided missile, the CARDE Velvet Glove air-to-air missile, or four general-purpose 1,000 lb bombs. The Velvet Glove radar-guided missile had been under development with the RCAF for some time, but was believed unsuitable for supersonic speeds and lacked development potential. Consequently, further work on that project was cancelled in 1956. In July 1953, the proposal

6996-485: The Munich Technical University to run computational tests to determine whether the aircraft could break the sound barrier. These tests do not rule out the possibility, but are lacking accurate data on the coefficient of drag that would be needed to make accurate simulations. Wagner stated: "I don't want to exclude the possibility, but I can imagine he may also have been just below the speed of sound and felt

7155-543: The National Research Council of Canada as high-speed test aircraft. The NRC refused, noting that without sufficient spare parts and maintenance, as well as qualified pilots, the NRC could make no use of them. A similar project initiated by the Royal Aircraft Establishment (Boscombe Down) had resulted in Avro vice-president (engineering) Jim Floyd's preparing a transatlantic ferry operation. This proposal, like others from

7314-427: The conical shock wave generated by the nose of the aircraft. The fuselage had a 5-foot diameter with an annular fuel tank around the engine. Another critical addition was the use of a power-operated stabilator , also known as the all-moving tail or flying tail , a key to transonic and supersonic flight control, which contrasted with traditional hinged tailplanes (horizontal stabilizers) connected mechanically to

7473-411: The 1940s use within the industry was already common. By the late 1930s, one practical outcome of this was becoming clear. Although aircraft were still operating well below Mach 1, generally half that at best, their engines were rapidly pushing past 1,000 hp. At these power levels, the traditional two-bladed propellers were clearly showing rapid increases in drag. The tip speed of a propeller blade

7632-412: The 1950s, many combat aircraft could routinely break the sound barrier in level flight, although they often suffered from control problems when doing so, such as Mach tuck . Modern aircraft can transit the "barrier" without control problems. By the late 1950s, the issue was so well understood that many companies started investing in the development of supersonic airliners, or SSTs , believing that to be

7791-661: The Anglo-French Concorde supersonic airliner is similar, but with the two sections and cropped wingtip merged into a smooth ogee curve. Tailed delta  – adds a conventional tailplane (with horizontal tail surfaces), to improve handling. Common on Soviet types such as the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 . Canard delta  – Many modern fighter aircraft, such as the JAS 39 Gripen , the Eurofighter Typhoon and

7950-459: The Arrow from Canada, and setting up a production line in the UK, was studied. The unit price per aircraft built in the UK was estimated at £220,000 each for a production run of 100 aircraft, as opposed to the estimate of £150,000 per aircraft for the thin wing Javelin. The CF-105 would serve as a stopgap until the F.155 project came to fruition, but with the F.155 due in 1963 and the Arrow not likely to reach

8109-416: The Arrow to the US and Britain, but no agreements were concluded. On 20 February 1959, Prime Minister of Canada John Diefenbaker abruptly halted the development of both the Arrow and its Iroquois engines before the scheduled project review to evaluate the program could be held. Two months later the assembly line, tooling, plans, existing airframes, and engines were ordered to be destroyed. The cancellation

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8268-755: The Arrow, but the Cabinet Defence Committee (CDC) refused. Pearkes tabled it again in September and recommended installation of the Bomarc missile system. The latter was accepted, but again the CDC refused to cancel the entire Arrow program. The CDC wanted to wait until a major review on 31 March 1959. They cancelled the Sparrow/Astra system in September 1958. Efforts to continue the program through cost-sharing with other countries were then explored. In 1959, Pearkes would say

8427-618: The Arrow, the RAF began the F.155 program in 1955, projecting a service entry date of 1962. As the program continued, it was clear the aircraft would not be ready by that date. It was also clear that new versions of the Soviet M-4 bomber would be available in 1959 that would outperform their existing Gloster Javelins , leaving a several-year gap where the RAF would have no effective anti-bomber force. Attention turned to interim designs that could be in service by

8586-486: The Arrow. More advanced designs were also being considered, notably the Mach 3 Republic XF-103 , and by the time the Arrow was flying, the much more advanced North American XF-108 . Both of these programs were cancelled during the mock-up stage, as it was believed the need for a manned interceptor of very high performance simply did not exist as the Soviets were moving their strategic force to ICBMs. This argument added weight to

8745-525: The Canadian aviation industry. Diefenbaker claimed the decision was based on "a thorough examination" of threats and defensive measures, and the cost of defensive systems. More specifically, the cost would have needed to be amortized over hundreds of manufactured models. At the time the trend was "away from conventional bombers" that the Avro Arrow could intercept and "towards atmospheric weapons like intercontinental ballistic missiles ", according to Global News. As

8904-617: The French government chose to end negotiations in October 1958 and opted for an upgraded version of the indigenous Snecma Atar , instead. There was never an explanation for this decision offered by the French government, even after Avro tried to offer the Iroquois as a private venture. In the US, the 1954 interceptor program was well underway, and would ultimately introduce the Convair F-106 Delta Dart , an aircraft with many similarities to

9063-458: The Javelin following the early loss of an aircraft to such conditions. Gloster's design team had reportedly opted to use a tailed delta configuration out of necessity, seeking to achieve effective manoeuvrability at relatively high speeds for the era while also requiring suitable controllability when being flown at the slower landing speeds desired. A lifting-canard delta can offer a smaller shift in

9222-421: The RAF before 1962, there was little point in proceeding. The infamous 1957 Defence White Paper , described as "the biggest change in military policy ever made in normal times", led to the cancellation of almost all British manned fighter aircraft then in development, and completely curtailed any likelihood of a purchase. In January 1959, the UK's final answer was no; Britain countered with an offer to sell Canada

9381-572: The RCAF in June 1952. Intensive discussions between Avro and the RCAF examined a wide range of alternative sizes and configurations for a supersonic interceptor, culminating in RCAF Specification AIR 7-3 in April 1953. AIR 7-3 called specifically for a two crew, twin engine, aircraft with a range of 300 nautical miles (556 km ) for a normal low-speed mission, and 200 nmi (370 km) for a high-speed interception mission. It also specified operation from

9540-526: The RCAF's Final Report of the All-Weather Interceptor Requirements Team was submitted to Avro Canada. Avro engineering had been considering supersonic issues already at this point. Supersonic flight works in a very different fashion and presents a number of new problems. One of the most critical, and surprising, was the sudden onset of a new form of drag , known as wave drag . The effects of wave drag were so strong that engines of

9699-470: The Rogallo wing. Sound barrier The sound barrier or sonic barrier is the large increase in aerodynamic drag and other undesirable effects experienced by an aircraft or other object when it approaches the speed of sound . When aircraft first approached the speed of sound, these effects were seen as constituting a barrier, making faster speeds very difficult or impossible. The term sound barrier

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9858-572: The Second World War brought a halt to flight testing of the Pa-22 , although work continued for a time after the project garnered German attention. During the postwar era, Payen flew an experimental tailless delta jet, the Pa.49 , in 1954, as well as the tailless pusher-configuration Arbalète series from 1965. Further derivatives based on Payen's work were proposed but ultimately went undeveloped. Following

10017-532: The Second World War, developed the theory of the thin delta wing for supersonic flight. First published in January 1945, his approach contrasted with that of Lippisch on thick delta wings. The thin delta wing first flew on the Convair XF-92 in 1948, making it the first delta-winged jet plane to fly. It provided a successful basis for all practical supersonic deltas and the configuration became widely adopted. During

10176-567: The Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 , the Tupolev first flying in 1968. While both Concorde and the Tu-144 prototype featured an ogival delta configuration, production models of the Tu-144 differed by changing to a double delta wing. The delta wings required these airliners to adopt a higher angle of attack at low speeds than conventional aircraft; in the case of Concorde, lift was maintained by allowed

10335-403: The Tu-144 were the first aircraft to carry commercial passengers at supersonic speeds, they were not the first or only commercial airliners to break the sound barrier. On 21 August 1961, a Douglas DC-8 broke the sound barrier at Mach 1.012, or 1,240 km/h (776.2 mph), while in a controlled dive through 41,088 feet (12,510 m). The purpose of the flight was to collect data on

10494-476: The U.S. reneged on the agreement, and nothing was forthcoming in return. The Bell X-1 , the first US crewed aircraft built to break the sound barrier, was visually similar to the Miles M.52 but with a high-mounted horizontal tail to keep it clear of the wing wake. Compared to the all-moving tail on the M.52 the X-1 used a conventional tail with elevators but with a movable stabilizer to maintain control passing through

10653-480: The US, typically to lower its drag, resulting in the replacement of its large vertical stabilizer with a smaller and more conventional counterpart, along with a normal cockpit canopy taken from a Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star . The work of French designer Nicolas Roland Payen somewhat paralleled that of Lippisch. During the 1930s, he had developed a tandem delta configuration with a straight fore wing and steep delta aft wing, similar to that of Causarás. The outbreak of

10812-509: The United States using sophisticated computer programs. In a related program, nine instrumented free-flight models were mounted on solid fuel Nike rocket boosters and launched from Point Petre over Lake Ontario while two additional models were launched from the NASA facility at Wallops Island , Virginia, over the Atlantic Ocean. These models were for aerodynamic drag and stability testing, flown to

10971-597: The United States, was never realized. Delta wing Although long studied, it did not find significant applications until the Jet Age , when it proved suitable for high-speed subsonic and  supersonic flight. At the other end of the speed scale, the Rogallo flexible wing proved a practical design for the hang glider and other ultralight aircraft . The delta wing form has unique aerodynamic characteristics and structural advantages. Many design variations have evolved over

11130-599: The ability to deliver nuclear weapons across North America and Europe. The main threat was principally from high-speed, high-altitude bombing runs launched from the Soviet Union travelling over the Arctic against military bases and built-up industrial centres in Canada and the United States. To counter this threat, Western countries developed interceptors that could engage and destroy these bombers before they reached their targets. A. V. Roe Canada Limited had been set up as

11289-477: The air flow around the aircraft reaches the speed of sound, and it is reported that the control surfaces no longer affect the direction of flight. The results vary with different airplanes: some wing over and dive while others dive gradually. It is also reported that once the speed of sound is exceeded, this condition disappears and normal control is restored. The comments about restoration of flight control and cessation of buffeting above Mach 1 are very significant in

11448-460: The air force", while Air Marshal Hugh Campbell , RCAF Chief of Staff, backed it right up until its cancellation. In June 1957, when the governing Liberals lost the federal election and a Progressive Conservative government under John Diefenbaker took power, the aircraft's prospects began to noticeably change. Diefenbaker had campaigned on a platform of reining in what the Conservatives claimed

11607-505: The aircraft was to use Frank Whittle 's latest engine, the Power Jets W.2/700 , with which it would only reach supersonic speed in a shallow dive. To develop a fully supersonic version of the aircraft, extra thrust would be provided with the addition of the No.4 augmentor which gave extra airflow from a ducted fan and reheat behind the fan. Although the project was eventually cancelled, the research

11766-667: The airflow over the main wing. This enables more extreme manoeuvres, improves low-speed handling and reduces the takeoff run and landing speed. During the 1960s, this configuration was considered to be radical, but Saab's design team judged that it was the optimal approach available for satisfying the conflicting performance demands for the Viggen, which including favourable STOL performance, supersonic speed, low turbulence sensitivity during low level flight, and efficient lift for subsonic flight. The close-coupled canard has since become common on supersonic fighter aircraft. Notable examples include

11925-427: The ballistic missile was the greater threat, and Canada purchased Bomarc "in lieu of more airplanes". Canada unsuccessfully tried to sell the Arrow to the US and Britain. The aircraft industry in both countries was considered a national interest and the purchase of foreign designs was rare. Nevertheless, from 1955 onwards, the UK had shown considerable interest in the Arrow. Desiring a high-performance interceptor like

12084-731: The barrier. By the 1950s, new designs of fighter aircraft routinely reached the speed of sound, and faster. Some common whips such as the bullwhip or stockwhip are able to move faster than sound: the tip of the whip exceeds this speed and causes a sharp crack—literally a sonic boom . Firearms made after the 19th century generally have a supersonic muzzle velocity . The sound barrier may have been first breached by living beings about 150 million years ago. Some paleobiologists report that computer models of their biomechanical capabilities suggest that certain long-tailed dinosaurs such as Brontosaurus , Apatosaurus , and Diplodocus could flick their tails at supersonic speeds, creating

12243-410: The behest of Willy Messerschmitt found that the plane became uncontrollable above Mach 0.86, and at Mach 0.9 would nose over into a dive that could not be recovered from. Post-war tests by the RAF confirmed these results, with the slight modification that the maximum speed using new instruments was found to be Mach 0.84, rather than Mach 0.86. In 1999, Mutke enlisted the help of Professor Otto Wagner of

12402-454: The buffeting, but did not go above Mach-1." One bit of evidence presented by Mutke is on page 13 of the "Me 262 A-1 Pilot's Handbook" issued by Headquarters Air Materiel Command , Wright Field , Dayton, Ohio as Report No. F-SU-1111-ND on January 10, 1946: Speeds of 950 km/h (590 mph) are reported to have been attained in a shallow dive 20° to 30° from the horizontal. No vertical dives were made. At speeds of 950 to 1,000 km/h (590 to 620 mph)

12561-400: The center of lift with increasing Mach number compared to a conventional tail configuration. An unloaded or free-floating canard can allow a safe recovery from a high angle of attack. Depending on its design, a canard surface may increase or decrease longitudinal stability of the aircraft. A canard delta foreplane creates its own trailing vortex. If this vortex interferes with the vortex of

12720-426: The centre of the area covered by the vortex. In the subsonic regime, the behaviour of a delta wing is generally similar to that of a swept wing. A characteristic sideways element to the airflow develops. In this condition, lift is maximised along the leading edge of the wing, where the air is turned most sharply to follow its contours. Especially for a slender delta, the centre of lift approximates to halfway back along

12879-452: The chain mechanism (used to shorten the gear) in the Mark 1 gear jammed, resulting in incomplete rotation. In a second incident with Arrow 202 on 11 November 1958, the flight control system commanded elevons full down at landing; the resulting reduction in weight on the gears reduced the effective tire friction, ultimately resulting in brake lockup and subsequent gear collapse. A photograph taken of

13038-449: The concept of a "barrier" making it difficult for an aircraft to exceed the speed of sound. Erroneous news reports caused most people to envision the sound barrier as a physical "wall", which supersonic aircraft needed to "break" with a sharp needle nose on the front of the fuselage. Rocketry and artillery experts' products routinely exceeded Mach 1, but aircraft designers and aerodynamicists during and after World War II discussed Mach 0.7 as

13197-506: The contract was upgraded to CA$ 260 million for five Arrow Mk.1 flight-test aircraft, to be followed by 35 Arrow Mk. 2s with production engines and fire-control systems . To meet the timetable set by the RCAF, Avro decided that the Arrow program would adopt the Cook-Craigie plan . Normally a small number of prototypes of an aircraft were hand-built and flown to find problems, and when solutions were found these changes would be worked into

13356-463: The control stick input was not mechanically connected to the hydraulic system, the variations in back-pressure from the flight control surfaces that would normally be felt by the pilot could no longer be transmitted back into the stick. To re-create a sense of feel, the same electronic control box rapidly responded to the hydraulic back-pressure fluctuations and triggered actuators in the stick, making it move slightly; this system, called "artificial feel",

13515-402: The control surfaces, while using small actuators and piping. A rudimentary fly-by-wire system was employed, in which the pilot's input was detected by a series of pressure-sensitive transducers in the stick, and their signal was sent to an electronic control servo that operated the valves in the hydraulic system to move the various flight controls. This resulted in a lack of control feel; because

13674-453: The defensive line further north, even though the deployment was found to be extremely costly. Deploying the missiles alone was expected to cost C$ 164 million, while SAGE would absorb another C$ 107 million, not counting the cost of improvements to radar; in all, it was projected to raise Canada's defence spending by "as much as 25 to 30%", according to George Pearkes , the minister of national defence. Defence against ballistic missiles

13833-403: The delta wing resulted in two versions of the design known as C104: the single engine C104/4 and twin-engined C104/2. The designs were otherwise similar, using a low-mounted delta-wing and sharply raked vertical stabilizer. The primary advantages of the C104/2 were its twin-engine reliability and a larger overall size, which offered a much larger internal weapons bay. The proposals were submitted to

13992-526: The design quickly demonstrated excellent handling and overall performance, reaching Mach 1.9 in level flight. Powered by the Pratt & Whitney J75 , another four Mk. 1s were completed, RL-202, RL-203, RL-204 and RL-205. The lighter and more powerful Orenda Iroquois engine was soon ready for testing, and the first Mk 2 with the Iroquois, RL-206, was ready for taxi testing in preparation for flight and acceptance tests by RCAF pilots by early 1959. Canada tried to sell

14151-410: The design. When satisfied with the results, the production line would be set up. In a Cook-Craigie system, the production line was set up first and a small number of aircraft were built as production models. Any changes would be incorporated into the jigs while testing continued, with full production starting when the test program was complete. As Jim Floyd noted at the time, this was a risky approach: "it

14310-468: The dive. A major impediment to early transonic flight was control reversal , the phenomenon which caused flight inputs (stick, rudder) to switch direction at high speed; it was the cause of many accidents and near-accidents. An all-flying tail is required for an aircraft to pass through the transonic speed range safely, without losing pilot control. The Miles M.52 was the first instance of this solution, which has since been universally applied. Initially,

14469-401: The effects of compressibility , a number of adverse aerodynamic effects that deterred further acceleration, seemingly impeding flight at speeds close to the speed of sound. These difficulties represented a barrier to flying at faster speeds. In 1947, American test pilot Chuck Yeager demonstrated that safe flight at the speed of sound was achievable in purpose-designed aircraft, thereby breaking

14628-463: The era could not provide enough power to overcome it, leading to the concept of a " sound barrier ". German research during the Second World War had shown the onset of wave drag was greatly reduced by using airfoils that varied in curvature as gradually as possible. This suggested the use of thinner airfoils with much longer chord than designers would have used on subsonic aircraft. These designs were impractical because they left little internal room in

14787-411: The erratic control in the rolling plane, encountered on the last flight, [was] no longer there ... Excellent progress was being made in the development ... from where I sat the Arrow was performing as predicted and was meeting all guarantees. RL-201 first flew on 25 March 1958 with Chief Development Test Pilot S/L Janusz Żurakowski at the controls. Four more J75-powered Mk 1s were delivered in

14946-501: The event, inviting more than 13,000 guests to the occasion. Unfortunately for Avro, the media and public attention for the Arrow rollout was dwarfed by the launch of Sputnik the same day. The J75 engine was slightly heavier than the PS-13 , and therefore required ballast to be placed in the nose to return the centre of gravity to the correct position. In addition, the Astra fire-control system

15105-498: The first crewed supersonic flight, piloted by Air Force Captain Charles "Chuck" Yeager in aircraft #46-062, which he had christened Glamorous Glennis . The rocket-powered aircraft was launched from the bomb bay of a specially modified B-29 and glided to a landing on a runway. XS-1 flight number 50 is the first one where the X-1 recorded supersonic flight, with a maximum speed of Mach 1.06 (361 m/s, 1,299 km/h, 807.2 mph). As

15264-517: The first operational jet fighters to feature a tailless delta wing when they entered service in 1956. Dassault's interest in the delta wing produced the Dassault Mirage family of combat aircraft, especially the highly successful Mirage III . Amongst other attributes, the Mirage III was the first Western European combat aircraft to exceed Mach 2 in horizontal flight. The tailed delta configuration

15423-540: The first person to break the sound barrier in a land vehicle in compliance with Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile rules. The vehicle, called the ThrustSSC ("Super Sonic Car"), captured the record 50 years and one day after Yeager 's first supersonic flight . In October 2012 Felix Baumgartner , with a team of scientists and sponsor Red Bull, attempted the highest sky-dive on record. The project would see Baumgartner attempt to jump 120,000 ft (36,580 m) from

15582-511: The foreplane can increase drag at supersonic speeds and hence reduce the aircraft's maximum speed. Triangular stabilizing fins for rockets were described as early as 1529-1556 by the Austrian military engineer Conrad Haas and in the 17th century by the Polish-Lithuanian military engineer Kazimierz Siemienowicz . However, a true lifting wing in delta form did not appear until 1867, when it

15741-448: The formation of shock waves on curved surfaces was another major problem, which led most famously to the breakup of a de Havilland Swallow and death of its pilot Geoffrey de Havilland, Jr. on 27 September 1946. A similar problem is thought to have been the cause of the 1943 crash of the BI-1 rocket aircraft in the Soviet Union. All of these effects, although unrelated in most ways, led to

15900-645: The formation of large low pressure vortices over the entire upper wing surface. Its typical landing speed was 170 miles per hour (274 km/h), considerably higher than subsonic airliners. Multiple proposed successors, such as the Zero Emission Hyper Sonic Transport ZEHST), have reportedly adopted a similar configuration to that Concorde's basic design, thus the Delta wing remains a likely candidate for future supersonic civil endeavours. During and after WWII, Francis and Gertrude Rogallo developed

16059-635: The full-scale wooden mock-up in February 1956, the RCAF demanded additional changes, selecting the advanced RCA-Victor Astra fire-control system firing the equally advanced United States Navy Sparrow II in place of the MX-1179 and Falcon combination. Avro vocally objected on the grounds that neither of these were even in testing at that point, whereas both the MX-1179 and Falcon were almost ready for production and would have been nearly as effective for "a very large saving in cost". The Astra proved to be problematic as

16218-565: The idea of a flexible wing which could be collapsed for storage. Francis saw an application in spacecraft recovery and NASA became interested. In 1961 Ryan flew the XV-8 , an experimental "flying Jeep" or "fleep". The flexible wing chosen for it was a delta and in use it billowed out into a double-cone profile which gave it aerodynamic stability. Although tested but ultimately never used for spacecraft recovery, this design soon became popular for hang gliders and ultra-light aircraft and has become known as

16377-459: The incident proved that inadvertent flight control activation had caused the accident. The only occasion when a test flight was diverted occurred on 2 February 1959, when a Trans-Canada Airlines Vickers Viscount crash-landed in Toronto, necessitating a landing at RCAF Trenton. The stability augmentation system also required much fine-tuning. Although the CF-105 was not the first aircraft to use such

16536-542: The inefficient early jet engines of the era, and the large wing area provided ample lift at high altitudes. The delta wing also enabled slower landings than swept wings in certain conditions. The disadvantages of the design were increased drag at lower speeds and altitudes, and especially higher drag while maneuvering. For the interceptor role these were minor concerns, as the aircraft would be spending most of its time flying in straight lines at high altitudes and speeds, mitigating these disadvantages. Further proposals based on

16695-446: The justification for cancelling the Arrow. In 1958, Avro Aircraft Limited president and general manager Fred Smye elicited a promise from the USAF to "supply, free, the fire control system and missiles and if they would allow the free use of their flight test centre at ... Edwards AFB." The Arrow's cancellation was announced on 20 February 1959. The day became known as "Black Friday" in

16854-504: The late 1940s, the British aircraft manufacturer Fairey Aviation became interested in the delta wing, its proposals led to the experimental Fairey Delta 1 being produced to Air Ministry Specification E.10/47 . A subsequent experimental aircraft, the Fairey Delta 2 set a new World air speed record on 10 March 1956, achieving 1,132 mph (1,811 km/h) or Mach 1.73. This raised

17013-480: The late 1940s. When used with a T-tail, as in the Gloster Javelin , like other wings a delta wing can give rise to a " deep stall " in which the high angle of attack at the stall causes the turbulent wake of the stalled wing to envelope the tail. This makes the elevator ineffective and the airplane cannot recover from the stall. In the case of the Javelin, a stall warning device was developed and implemented for

17172-470: The late 1950s to cover this period. At first, consideration was given to the thin-wing Javelin that would provide moderate supersonic performance, along with the extremely high performance but short range Saunders-Roe SR.177 . A new round of development produced an improved Mach 1.6 version of the thin-wing Javelin, and the Arrow was put aside for the time. But it was soon clear that the new Javelin would not enter service until at least 1961, too late to stop

17331-461: The leading edge root. This allows air below the leading edge to flow out, up and around it, then back inwards creating a sideways flow pattern similar to subsonic flow. The lift distribution and other aerodynamic characteristics are strongly influenced by this sideways flow. The rearward sweep angle lowers the airspeed normal to the leading edge of the wing, thereby allowing the aircraft to fly at high subsonic , transonic, or supersonic speed, while

17490-428: The leading edge. The sideways effect also leads to an overall reduction in lift and in some circumstances can also lead to an increase in drag. It may be countered through the use of leading-edge slots, wing fences and related devices. With a large enough angle of rearward sweep, in the transonic to low supersonic speed range the wing's leading edge remains behind the shock wave boundary or shock cone created by

17649-402: The main delta wing, this can adversely affect the airflow over the wing and cause unwanted and even dangerous behaviour. In the close-coupled configuration, the canard vortex couples with the main vortex to enhance its benefits and maintain controlled airflow through a wide range of speeds and angles of attack. This allows both improved manoeuvrability and lower stalling speeds, but the presence of

17808-549: The most enduring aircraft of its class, serving in a variety of roles until 1981. Recognizing that the delays that affected the development and deployment of the CF-100 could also affect its successor, and the fact that the Soviets were working on newer jet-powered bombers that would render the CF-100 ineffective, the RCAF began looking for a supersonic, missile-armed replacement for the Canuck even before it had entered service. In March 1952,

17967-450: The multinational Eurofighter Typhoon , France's Dassault Rafale , Saab's own Gripen (a successor to the Viggen) and Israel's IAI Kfir . One of the main reasons for its popularity has been the high level of agility in manoeuvring that it is capable of. When supersonic transport (SST) aircraft were developed, the tailless ogival delta wing was chosen for both the Anglo-French Concorde and

18126-444: The name "Delta", used a very gentle angle so that the wing appeared almost straight and the wing tips had to be cropped sharply (see below). His first such delta flew in 1931, followed by four successively improved examples. These prototypes were not easy to handle at low speed and none saw widespread use. During the latter years of World War II , Alexander Lippisch refined his ideas on the high-speed delta, substantially increasing

18285-711: The new M-4s and with the F.155 designs coming on only two years later. In April 1956, the UK's Air Council recommended a purchase of 144 Arrows to fill the role of the thin-wing Javelin. These would be powered by UK engines; the Bristol Olympus 7R – 17,000 lbf (76 kN) thrust dry, 23,700 lbf (105 kN) with reheat , the Rolls-Royce Conway Stage 4 – 18,340 lbf (81.6 kN) thrust dry, 29,700 lbf (132 kN) with reheat, or de Havilland Gyron – 19,500 lbf (87 kN) thrust dry, 28,000 lbf (120 kN) with reheat. Procurement of

18444-528: The next "natural" step in airliner evolution. However, this has not yet happened. Although the Concorde and the Tupolev Tu-144 entered service in the 1970s, both were later retired without being replaced by similar designs. The last flight of a Concorde in service was in 2003. Despite a resurgence of interest in the 2010s, as of 2024 there are no commercial supersonic airliners in service. Although Concorde and

18603-424: The next 18 months. The test flights, limited to "proof-of-concept" and assessing flight characteristics, revealed no serious design faults. The CF-105 demonstrated excellent handling throughout the flight envelope, in large part due to the natural qualities of the delta-wing, but responsibility can also be attributed to the Arrow's Stability Augmentation System . The aircraft went supersonic on its third flight and, on

18762-542: The performance of the Arrow Mk 2 (with Iroquois) as follows, from the January 1955 British evaluation titled Evaluation of the CF.105 as an All Weather Fighter for the RAF: "Max speed Mach 1.9 at 50,000 ft, Combat speed of Mach 1.5 at 50.000 feet and 1.84 G without bleeding energy, time to 50,000 ft of 4.1 minutes, 500-foot per minute climb ceiling of 62,000 feet, 400 nmi radius on

18921-405: The pilots control column . Conventional control surfaces became ineffective at the high subsonic speeds then being achieved by fighters in dives, due to the aerodynamic forces caused by the formation of shockwaves at the hinge and the rearward movement of the centre of pressure , which together could override the control forces that could be applied mechanically by the pilot, hindering recovery from

19080-414: The projectile to get above Mach 1 in the first place, but there was no better theory and data was matching theory to some degree. At the same time, ever-increasing wind tunnel speeds were showing a similar effect as one approached Mach 1 from below. In this case, however, there was no theoretical development that suggested why this might be. What was noticed was that the increase in drag was not smooth, it had

19239-489: The rapidly increasing forces acting on the control surfaces of their aircraft overpowered them. In this case, several attempts to fix it only made the problem worse. Likewise, the flexing caused by the low torsional stiffness of the Supermarine Spitfire 's wings caused them, in turn, to counteract aileron control inputs, leading to a condition known as control reversal . This was solved in later models with changes to

19398-494: The record above 1,000 mph for the first time and broke the previous record by 310 mph, or 37 per cent; never before had the record been raised by such a large margin. In its original tailless form, the thin delta was used extensively by the American aviation company Convair and by the French aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation . The supersonic Convair F-102 Delta Dagger and transonic Douglas F4D Skyray were two of

19557-405: The resulting M.52 design, which resulted from consulting experts in government establishments with a current knowledge of supersonic aerodynamics . In particular, the design featured a conical nose, for low supersonic drag, and sharp wing leading edges. The design used very thin wings of biconvex section proposed by Jakob Ackeret for low drag . The wing tips were "clipped" to keep them clear of

19716-476: The resumption of normal control once a certain speed was exceeded, then a resumption of severe buffeting once the Me 262 slowed again. He also reported engine flame-out. This claim is widely disputed, even by pilots in his unit. All of the effects he reported are known to occur on the Me 262 at much lower speeds, and the ASI reading is simply not reliable in the transonic. Further, a series of tests made by Karl Doetsch at

19875-468: The seventh, broke 1,000 mph (1,600 km/h) at 50,000 ft (15,000 m) while climbing. A top speed of Mach 1.98 was achieved, and this was not at the limits of its performance. An Avro report made public in 2015 clarifies that during the highest speed flight, the Arrow reached Mach 1.90 in steady level flight, and an indicated Mach number of 1.95 was recorded in a dive. Estimates up to Mach 1.98 likely originated from an attempt to compensate for lag error , which

20034-596: The shaft power driving the propeller. To maintain thrust, the engine power must replace this loss, and must also match the aircraft drag as it increases with speed. The required power is so great that the size and weight of the engine becomes prohibitive. This speed limitation led to research into jet engines , notably by Frank Whittle in England and Hans von Ohain in Germany. This also led to propellers with ever-increasing numbers of blades, three, four and then five were seen during

20193-533: The sound barrier in the Bell X-1. Although evidence from witnesses and instruments strongly imply that Welch achieved supersonic speed, the flights were not properly monitored and are not officially recognized. The XP-86 officially achieved supersonic speed on 26 April 1948. On 14 October 1947, just under a month after the United States Air Force had been created as a separate service, the tests culminated in

20352-456: The sound barrier, which she did on 18 May 1953, piloting a plane borrowed from the Royal Canadian Air Force , with Yeager accompanying her. On December 3, 1957, Margaret Chase Smith became the first woman in Congress to break the sound barrier, which she did as a passenger in an F-100 Super Sabre piloted by Air Force Major Clyde Good. In the late 1950s, Allen Rowley , a British journalist,

20511-452: The sound barrier. It was in the X-1 that Chuck Yeager became the first person to break the sound barrier in level flight on 14 October 1947, flying at an altitude of 45,000 ft (13.7 km). George Welch made a plausible but officially unverified claim to have broken the sound barrier on 1 October 1947, while flying an XP-86 Sabre . He also claimed to have repeated his supersonic flight on 14 October 1947, 30 minutes before Yeager broke

20670-439: The subsonic lifting characteristics of the airflow over the wing are maintained. Within this flight regime, drooping the leading edge within the shock cone increases lift, but not drag to any significant extent. Such conical leading edge droop was introduced on the production Convair F-102A Delta Dagger at the same time that the prototype design was reworked to include area-ruling . It also appeared on Convair's next two deltas,

20829-480: The supersonic shock wave generated by the nose of the aircraft. Almost every fighter project in the postwar era immediately applied the concept, which started appearing on production fighters in the late 1940s. Avro engineers explored swept-wing and tail modifications to the CF-100 known as the CF-103 , which had proceeded to wooden mock-up stage. The CF-103 offered improved transonic performance with supersonic abilities in

20988-416: The surface and also accelerates the airflow, maintaining lift. For intermediate sweep angles, a retractable "moustache" or fixed leading-edge root extension (LERX) may be added to encourage and stabilise vortex formation. The ogee or "wineglass" double-curve, seen for example on Concorde , incorporates this forward extension into the profile of the wing. In this condition, the centre of lift approximates to

21147-642: The sweepback of the wing's leading edge. An experimental glider, the DM-1 , was built to test the aerodynamics of the proposed P.13a high-speed interceptor . Following the end of hostilities, the DM-1 was completed on behalf of the United States and the shipped to Langley Field in Virginia for examination by NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, forerunner of today's NASA ) It underwent significant alterations in

21306-596: The system ran into a lengthy period of delays, and when the USN cancelled the Sparrow II in 1956, Canadair was quickly brought in to continue the Sparrow program in Canada, although they expressed grave concerns about the project as well and the move added yet more expense. Go-ahead on the production was given in 1955. The rollout of the first CF-105, marked as RL-201, took place on 4 October 1957. The company had planned to capitalize on

21465-496: The tailless delta are structural simplicity and light weight, combined with low aerodynamic drag. These properties helped to make the Dassault Mirage III one of the most widely manufactured supersonic fighters of all time. A conventional tail stabiliser allows the main wing to be optimised for lift and therefore to be smaller and more highly loaded. Development of aircraft equipped with this configuration can be traced back to

21624-426: The upper fuselage, simplifying construction and improving strength. The wing design and positioning required a long main landing gear that still had to fit within the thin delta wing, presenting an engineering challenge. Five different wing sizes were outlined in the report, ranging between 1,000 ft and 1,400 ft (93 m to 130 m) ; the 1,200 ft (111 m) sized version was eventually selected. The primary engine selection

21783-555: The war, the British developed a number of subsonic jet aircraft that harnessed data gathered from Lippisch's work. One such aircraft, the Avro 707 research aircraft, made its first flight in 1949. British military aircraft such as the Avro Vulcan (a strategic bomber ) and Gloster Javelin (an all-weather fighter) were among the first delta-equipped aircraft to enter production. Whereas the Vulcan

21942-589: The war. As the problem became better understood, it also led to "paddle bladed" propellers with increased chord, as seen (for example) on late-war models of the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt . Nevertheless, propeller aircraft were able to approach their critical Mach number , different for each aircraft, in a dive. Doing so led to numerous crashes for a variety of reasons. Flying the Mitsubishi Zero , pilots sometimes flew at full power into terrain because

22101-411: The wing for armament or fuel. The Germans also discovered it was possible to "trick" the airflow into the same behaviour if a conventional thicker airfoil was used swept rearward at a sharp angle, creating a swept wing . This provided many of the advantages of a thinner airfoil while also retaining the internal space needed for strength and fuel storage. Another advantage was that the wings were clear of

22260-425: The wing. Worse still, a particularly dangerous interaction of the airflow between the wings and tail surfaces of diving Lockheed P-38 Lightnings made "pulling out" of dives difficult; in one 1941 test flight test pilot Ralph Virde was killed when the plane flew into the ground at high speed. The problem was later solved by the addition of a "dive flap" that upset the airflow under these circumstances. Flutter due to

22419-522: The years, with and without additional stabilising surfaces. The long root chord of the delta wing and minimal area outboard make it structurally efficient. It can be built stronger, stiffer and at the same time lighter than a swept wing of equivalent aspect ratio and lifting capability. Because of this it is easy and relatively inexpensive to build—a substantial factor in the success of the MiG-21 and Mirage aircraft series. Its long root chord also allows

22578-432: Was Geoffrey de Havilland, Jr. , who was killed on 27 September 1946 when his DH 108 broke up at about Mach 0.9. John Derry has been called "Britain's first supersonic pilot" because of a dive he made in a DH 108 on 6 September 1948. The British Air Ministry signed an agreement with the United States to exchange all its high-speed research data and designs, including that for the M.52, with equivalent US research but

22737-668: Was patented by J.W. Butler and E. Edwards in a design for a low-aspect-ratio, dart-shaped rocket-propelled aeroplane. This was followed by various similarly dart-shaped proposals, such as a biplane version by Butler and Edwards, and a jet-propelled version by the Russian Nicholas de Telescheff . In 1909 a variant with a canard foreplane was experimented with by the Spanish sculptor Ricardo Causarás. Also in 1909, British aeronautical pioneer J. W. Dunne patented his tailless stable aircraft with conical wing development. The patent included

22896-522: Was "rampant Liberal spending". Nonetheless, by 1958, the parent company had become Canada's third largest business enterprise and had primary interests in rolling stock, steel and coal, electronics, and aviation with 39 different companies under the A. V. Roe Canada banner. In August 1957, the Diefenbaker government signed the NORAD (North American Air Defense) Agreement with the United States, making Canada

23055-439: Was a classic tailless design, the Javelin incorporated a tailplane in order to improve low-speed handling and high-speed manoeuvrability, as well as to allow a greater centre of gravity range. Gloster proposed a refinement of the Javelin that would have, amongst other changes, decreased wing thickness in order to achieve supersonic speeds of up to Mach 1.6. The American aerodynamicist Robert T. Jones , who worked at NACA during

23214-533: Was able to fly in a Super Sabre at 1000 mph, one of the few non-American civilians to exceed the speed of sound and one of the few civilians anywhere to make such a trip. On 21 August 1961, a Douglas DC-8-43 (registration N9604Z) unofficially exceeded Mach 1 in a controlled dive during a test flight at Edwards Air Force Base, as observed and reported by the flight crew; the crew were William Magruder (pilot), Paul Patten (co-pilot), Joseph Tomich (flight engineer), and Richard H. Edwards (flight test engineer). This

23373-489: Was accepted and Avro was given the go-ahead to start a full design study under the project name: "CF-105". In December, CA$ 27 million was provided to start flight modelling. At first, the project was limited in scope, but the introduction of the Soviet Myasishchev M-4 Bison jet bomber and the Soviet Union's testing of a hydrogen bomb the next month dramatically changed Cold War priorities. In March 1955,

23532-522: Was adopted by the TsAGI (Central Aero and Hydrodynamic Institute, Moscow ), to improve high angle-of-attack handling, manoeuvrability and centre of gravity range over a pure delta planform. The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 ("Fishbed") became the most widely built combat aircraft of the 1970s. Through the 1960s, the Swedish aircraft manufacturer Saab AB developed a close-coupled canard delta configuration, placing

23691-468: Was also a first. In 1954, the RB.106 program was cancelled, necessitating the use of the backup Wright J67 engine instead. In 1955, this engine was also cancelled, leaving the design with no engine. At this point, the Pratt & Whitney J75 was selected for the initial test-flight models, while the new TR 13 engine was developed at Orenda for the production Mk 2s. After evaluating the engineering mock-ups and

23850-479: Was also becoming a priority. The existence of Sputnik had also raised the possibility of attacks from space, and, as the year progressed, word of a " missile gap " began spreading. An American brief of the meeting with Pearkes records his concern that Canada could not afford defensive systems against both ballistic missiles and manned bombers. It is also said Canada could afford the Arrow or Bomarc/SAGE, but not both. By 11 August 1958, Pearkes requested cancellation of

24009-413: Was caught unprepared by the suddenness of the announcement by the government; while executives were aware that the program was in jeopardy, they expected it to continue until the March review. It was widely believed during this lead-up to the review, the first Arrow Mk 2, RL-206, would be prepared for an attempt at both world speed and altitude records. An attempt was made to provide the completed Arrows to

24168-558: Was concerned by the transonic buffeting. Dittmar himself does not make a claim that he broke the sound barrier on that flight and notes that the speed was recorded only on the AIS. He does, however, take credit for being the first pilot to "knock on the sound barrier". There are a number of uncrewed vehicles that flew at supersonic speeds during this period. In 1933, Soviet designers working on ramjet concepts fired phosphorus-powered engines out of artillery guns to get them to operational speeds. It

24327-536: Was decided to take the technical risks involved to save time on the programme ... I will not pretend that this philosophy of production type build from the outset did not cause us a lot of problems in Engineering. However, it did achieve its objective." To mitigate risks, a massive testing program was started. By mid-1954, the first production drawings were issued and wind tunnel work began, along with extensive computer simulation studies carried out both in Canada and

24486-401: Was expected in diving flight. Although no major problems were encountered during the initial testing phase, some minor issues with the landing gear and flight control system had to be rectified. The former problem was partly due to the tandem main landing gear being very narrow, in order to fit into the wings; the leg shortened in length and rotated as it was stowed. During one landing incident,

24645-476: Was not ready, and it too, was replaced by ballast. The otherwise unused weapons bay was loaded with test equipment. The aircraft, at supersonic speeds, was pleasant and easy to fly. During approach and landing, the handling characteristics were considered good ... On my second flight ... the general handling characteristics of the Arrow Mark 1 were much improved ... On my sixth and last flight ...

24804-722: Was the Rolls-Royce RB.106 , an advanced two-spool design offering around 21,000 pounds-force (93 kN). Backup designs were the Bristol Olympus OL-3 , the US-built Curtiss-Wright J67 version of the OL-3, or the Orenda TR.9 engines. Armament was stored in a large internal bay located in a "belly" position, taking up over one third of the aircraft fuselage. A wide variety of weapons could be deployed from this bay, such as

24963-483: Was the first supersonic flight by a civilian airliner, achieved before the Concorde or the Tu-144 flew. As the science of high-speed flight became more widely understood, a number of changes led to the eventual understanding that the "sound barrier" is easily penetrated, with the right conditions. Among these changes were the introduction of thin swept wings , the area rule , and engines of ever-increasing performance. By

25122-487: Was the topic of considerable political controversy at the time, and the subsequent destruction of the aircraft in production remains a topic for debate among historians and industry pundits. "This action effectively put Avro out of business and its highly skilled engineering and production personnel scattered". In the post-Second World War period, the Soviet Union began developing a capable fleet of long-range bombers with

25281-454: Was used to construct an uncrewed 30% scale model of the M.52 that went on to achieve a speed of Mach 1.38 in a successful, controlled transonic and supersonic level test flight in October 1948; this was a unique achievement at that time which provided "some validation of the aerodynamics of the M.52 upon which the model was based". Meanwhile, test pilots achieved high speeds in the tailless , swept-wing de Havilland DH 108 . One of them

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