The Avro CF-105 Arrow was cancelled by Prime Minister John Diefenbaker on February 20, 1959 — a date still referred to in Canadian aerospace circles simply as "Black Friday." Within weeks, the completed airframes, jigs, tooling, and technical drawings were ordered destroyed, a decision whose completeness remains disputed. No fully intact Arrow survives. The destruction of the program scattered Avro Canada's engineering team, most of whom were recruited almost immediately by NASA and contributed directly to the Mercury and Apollo projects.
The Avro CF-105 Arrow was cancelled by Prime Minister John Diefenbaker on February 20, 1959 — a date still referred to in Canadian aerospace circles simply as "Black Friday." Within weeks, the completed airframes, jigs, tooling, and technical drawings were ordered destroyed, a decision whose completeness remains disputed. No fully intact Arrow survives. The destruction of the program scattered Avro Canada's engineering team, most of whom were recruited almost immediately by NASA and contributed directly to the Mercury and Apollo projects.