3 ms·

The regrettable purchase of 66 CF-101 VooDoo shortly after suggests otherwise. The CF-101 were pretty much DOA and replaced rather quickly. The Arrow would stil

• nwallin 6y ago
  > The Arrow would still be flown today by the Canadian Air Force had the program completed. They absolutely would not still be flown today. The Arrow was a relic of the pre-ICBM cold war. When the USSR was expected to field fleets of nuclear bombers over the north pole. The Arrow was designed to go fast, launch an unguided nuclear air to air rocket, turn around and fly home. It was great at this, but in the ensuing years, the Soviet Union put a lot more effort into its ICBM capability than its intercontinental nuclear bomber capability. It would have had difficulty adapting to other roles. As a delta wing, its energy management was likely terrible. Its thin, delicate wings would be ill suited to hanging a heavy bomb load from. It is comparable (though slightly worse) in era, role, configuration, and performance to the F-106, which was retired in the '80s. The Arrow was designed to do something that was simply unnecessary. If the program had been completed, it still would have been replaced in the '70s or '80s. The only difference is that it would have likely been replaced by an Avro Canada designed aircraft rather than an American one.