How serious was the UK’s interest in the Avro Canada CF-105? Official documents help tell the story — in many ways, an all-too-familiar one
THE RAF AND THE CF-105
Gloster Aircraft hoped for great things when the Air Ministry wrote specification F153 around its so-called thin-wing Javelin concept. It envisaged a profitable production run of this very much revised derivative of its all-weather fighter, which would meet RAF needs until the next generation of aircraft for this role became available. The combination of this airframe and Vickers’ Red Dean radar-guided air-to-air missile would offer the UK a greatly improved means of defence against high-flying Soviet bombers. At least, that was the theory.
The Canadian government had a similar need. In 1953, just as the thin-wing Javelin concept was being solidified, Avro Canada was starting definitive design studies relating to its CF-105 programme. While the Gloster machine in F153D form would just exceed Mach 1 in level flight, the Avro Canada interceptor, for which a two-seat, delta-wing configuration was chosen, was intended to cruise comfortably at Mach 1.5 and exceed Mach 2. A flying prototype was some way off, but the concept was impressive enough.
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