: Daniel Wyatt
: The Last Flight of the Arrow
: Mushroom eBooks
: 9781843193838
: 1
: CHF 3.90
:
: Krimis, Thriller, Spionage
: English
: 150
: DRM
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB

February 20, 1959, the Canadian prime minister stood before the House of Commons to announce that his government had decided to cancel the CF-105 Avro Arrow supersonic fighter-interceptor program. What were the reasons? Over three hundred million dollars had been spent on the aircraft considered by many to be twenty years ahead of its time. It was also suggested that the new missile age - brought on by the advent of the Russian satellite Sputnik - had made manned interceptors obsolete.
But what were the real reasons? And were the Americans involved?
In this tale of intrigue, the Russians plan an air strike on North America. Canadian and American Intelligence get wind of it through secret channels. The Canadians pretend to terminate the Arrow and then - with the help of the Americans - deploy the machine for what it was designed for. It's mission: catch the Russians with evidence of its strike force. While the public mourns the death of the supersonic fighter, the Arrow blasts its way across the Pacific on a vital, long-range, photo-recon mission to save the Free World and avert World War III. Behind the controls is a hand-picked Royal Canadian Air Force pilot.
Target - Siberia.

Chapter one


MALTON, ONTARIO — TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 1958, 0947 HOURS (EST)

A crowd of thousands gathered outside the Avro hangar at Malton Airport near Toronto, waiting anxiously for the corporation’s pet project — Avro’s new multimillion-dollar fighter-interceptor — to make its maiden flight.

They watched breathlessly as the test pilot manned the articulate controls of the CF-105 Avro Arrow. This day had not come fast enough for those on the tarmac; the Avro management, the designers, the assembly line technicians, the ground crew, the live TV and radio audience, and the Royal Canadian Air Force. Even Canada’s neighbor to the South was interested. Following the Arrow’s rollout on October 4, 1957, the American-based magazineAviation Week had printed:

The fighter makes Canada a serious contender for the top military aircraft of the next several years. The Arrow’s power, weight and general design leave little doubt of its performance potential.

Important features of the present version of the CF-105 include 1) afterburner takeoff weight of about sixty thousand with Iroquois engines; 2) maximum takeoff weight of about sixty thousand pounds; 3) area-ruled fuselage; and 4) very thin wings with conical leading edges and blunt trailing edges.

As far as ceiling is concerned, Fred T. Smye, president of Avro, has stated that the Arrow will be able to intercept and destroy aircraft flying at seventy-five thousand feet. There was no explanation as to the altitude in a zoom climb, or whether the Arrow actually had to reach seventy-five thousand feet for its missile armament to destroy the hostile aircraft, but it does give some indication of the Arrow’s altitude capability.

A week earlier, the first Arrow flight had been canceled by Avro due to a hydraulic leak. But all systems were go today when a voice over the plant PA system had invited all nonessential personnel to drop their work, grab their coats, and catch the maiden flight. The plant emptied in minutes. Someone on the assembly line jokingly quipped that if the unfinished Arrows could get up and walk, they’d be out on the tarmac too.

* * * *

Lance Tiemans had been employed by Avro as an aeronautical technician for the past three years. The twenty-eight-year-old liked his job and was proud of his connection with the Arrow. The pay could have been better, but all in all he was enjoying life as a bachelor, in a field right up his alley. From the time he was ten years old Tiemans had dreamed of flying fighter aircraft. It was 1940. The Canadian daily newspapers were full of the daring exploits of British and Canadian fighter pilots engaged in the Battle of Britain. Douglas Bader and Robert Tuck and others. Tiemans had wished he was there with them, flying Spitfires or Hurricanes.

His dream, however, had not unfolded exactly as he had planned, but it was still close enough. Today was the maiden flight of Canada’s first supersonic all-weather fighter-interceptor, an aircraft he had toiled on. He knew every inch of the Arrow’s engines. The Arrow wasn’t just Avro’s aircraft or the country’s aircraft. It was his. As Tiemans stood proudly on the tarmac with the other members of his workin