Avro Arrow replica unveiled

The Avro Arrow is very much a part of Canadian myth and legend; it would be impossible to summarize the aircraft and its history in 500 words or less. Suffice to say, anyone with even a hint of interest in the history of Canadian technology is aware of the technologically advanced supersonic interceptor of the 1950s and its inglorious end at the hands of politicking and bitter recrimination.

Which is why it was somewhat exciting that a replica of the Arrow has been constructed, and was unofficially unveiled today. An official rollout is scheduled for October 5-7, with an accompanying fund-raiser dinner and a public open house on the Thanksgiving weekend. (This is not the first replica; a previous version was built by an enthusiast in the mid 1990s. It was also used in a 1997 CBC 'docu-drama' entitled "The Arrow".) There are countless books, websites, movies, articles, and anecdotes; far too many to list here, but if you still don't know what's going on here maybe a Heritage Minute will do (flash required).

Super Connie for Sale

In the Globe and Mail today, a short reference was made to a Lockheed Super Constellation passenger aircraft, otherwise known as a Connie. The Connie was a four-engine propeller aircraft built in California by Lockheed in the 1940s and 1950s. Over 800 were build, and the distintive and elegant aircraft flew for nearly 40 years, for both military and commercial purposes.

The specific model in the article was built in 1953 for Trans Canada Airlines, and is perhaps the last surviving model in Canada - for now. The private owner sold it to the Seattle Museum of Flight recently, but was denied an export permit by the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board for three months. Several Canadian aviation organizations had protested the sale, and after an independent evaluation the Review Board put a temporary hold on the export deeming it "to be of 'significant' cultural and historical value to Canada." This is intended to provide time for a Canadian group to raise sufficient funds to purchase the Connie at fair value, if possible.

Of course, there are at least two sides of the story. From the United States, we have The Constellation Survivor Website with their interpretation of this recent news, and in Canada a petition at Canadian Super Connie to prevent the export, and the Toronto Aerospace Museum's own record of events.