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• PIPELINE NEWS NORTH
JANUARY 2012
profiles straight as an arrow The story of Robin Sipe and his turbine engine
Robin Sipe’s interest in aviation history and turbine engines, like this engine in S&S Turbines’ Fort St. John shop, led him to acquire an Orenda Iroquois engine that once powered an Avro Arrow aircraft. . james waterman photo
james waterman Pipeline News North Robin Sipe isn’t just a patriotic history buff with an interest in aviation and turbine engines. He is actually a small part of the tale of one of his favourite aspects of Canadian aerospace history – the ill-fated Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow that was developed by Ontario’s Avro Aircraft during the fifties. The Arrow program was cancelled and the aircraft were destroyed in 1959. However, one of the Orenda Iroquois engines that were built to power the Arrow quickly found its way to Great Britain after the project’s demise, where it would stay until Sipe was able to bring it back to Canada about fifty years later. Sipping coffee from an Avro Arrow mug in the Fort St. John home of his turbine engine maintenance company, S & S Turbines, Sipe told the story of how that famous engine came to be in his possession. That story began at the moment when the Arrow’s story came to an end. At that time, Orenda’s parent company, British manufacturing firm Hawker Siddeley, took one of the Iroquois engines to Bristol Aerospace in Britain to test its capabilities during the development of a new British fighter jet, the TSR-2, which suffered a similar fate to the Arrow. “The engine was tested in 1959 and 1960,” said Sipe. “And it surpassed all of their expectations. Actually, that engine ran flawlessly.” The Iroquois set performance records that wouldn’t be broken until the United States introduced the SR-71 Blackbird in the mid-sixties. “It was truly a fantastic engine,” said Sipe, adding that
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it was subsequently taken to Cranfield University for study purposes after testing. The Iroquois spent the next part of its life in Royal Air Force museums in Britain until Sipe was able to acquire it in the fall of 2010. The path toward that acquisition really began in 1978, when Sipe started a nearly twentyyear career with Westcoast Energy – now Spectra Energy – that eventually revolved around the turbine engines used to pump petroleum products through the pipelines. “A lot of people don’t realize what turbines are used for,” said Sipe. “All of the big inch pipeline around here – generally, any pipeline 18 inch and larger in the entire Peace River country – use turbine engines to move the natural gas. A lot of people don’t realize that. They think that natural gas just moves down the pipeline by itself. – Robin Sipe, Owner That’s not true. There’s a lot of frictional loss in pipelines and you have to have engines to move that gas along down the pipe.” Sipe explained that Spectra Energy has turbine engines pumping the natural gas at intervals of approximately every 100 kilometres along the pipeline. He accepted a position supervising the company’s turbine overhaul facility in Charlie Lake in 1991, continuing to do the job until 1997, when he finally broke out on his own. It was during that period that he learned of an opportunity to acquire an Orenda Iroquois engine that had been part of the Arrow program. “I was attending a turbine conference in Ontario, California in 1996,” he said. “And one of the fellows overheard me talking about various turbine engines pumping natural gas. So, he introduced himself during a break. And he says, ‘I understand that you work for Spectra Energy.’ And he said, ‘What turbine engines do you use?’ And I mentioned the various [General Electric] models and Rolls Royce models. And he says, ‘Well, we have Rolls Royce engines in the [United Kingdom] that we’d be interested in selling for parts.’ And he wanted to know if Spectra Energy would be interested in looking at these parts. Two months later, I made the trip to the U.K. to look at these Rolls Royce parts. We made a deal. We
purchased some of them to support Spectra Energy’s Rolls Royce turbines pumping natural gas.” “We had a couple extra days before I flew back to Canada,” Sipe continued, “and he wanted to know if I wanted to go to Duxford Air Museum, which is just outside of London. A fantastic aircraft museum.” The museum had a display on the TSR-2 aircraft. “And he commented about how that program was canceled and it was a loss to the British aerospace industry,” said Sipe. “And I commented that we had a similar program in Canada called the Avro Arrow and the Orenda Iroquois engines. And this fellow, he says, ‘I know where there’s an Iroquois engine.’” Sipe had strong doubts about that claim, but the other man explained that he had seen the engine as a student at Cranfield University and was quite certain that it still existed. He investigated the matter and discovered that it was being held in a Royal Air Force storage facility. Additionally, the Royal Air Force was willing to return the engine to Canada if there was a valid proposal to acquire it. The only complication was that they were unable to sell the engine because it was a museum piece held in public trust. They could only accept a trade. “I submitted half a dozen different proposals, different turbine engines and different things, and they weren’t interested in any of that,” said Sipe. Eventually, the Royal Air Force discovered that there was an airframe for an old Handley Page Hampden aircraft – a model used for training purpose during World War II – that was sitting in Victoria. “And they were currently trying to restore a Hampden in the U.K.,” said Sipe. “And [they] were missing some airframe parts.” The airframe in Victoria had exactly what they needed to finish the project. “They said, ‘You purchase that airframe and send it to the U.K., we will trade you for that Orenda Iroquois.’ So, I did that. I went and I purchased the aircraft,” said Sipe. “I also purchased a 40-foot sea container,” he continued. The airframe was dismantled, loaded into the container and shipped to Britain. When the container returned to Canada, it contained an Orenda Iroquois engine. It was already in Canada when Sipe received a phone call from Canadian Heritage. “They said, ‘We understand that you purchased an aircraft and are wanting to ship it to the U.K.,’” he recalled. “And I said, ‘No, that’s not entirely correct.’ I said, ‘I purchased it and I already shipped it.’ And they said, ‘Oh, you could be in big trouble for that. Because, in Canada, anything of historical significance, before it leaves Canada, you have to fill out an application. Even if you own it, you have to fill out an applicaof S&S Turbines tion to remove that material from Canada.’ “And I said, ‘Well, it’s already gone. Sorry.’ And so she was quite upset. And she said, ‘Well, if you don’t mind me asking, did you sell it or did you trade it?’ And I said, ‘I traded it.’ ‘What did you trade it for?’ I said, ‘I traded it for an Orenda Iroquois.’ “There was a long pause on the phone. And I said, ‘You know what that is?’ And she said, ‘Oh, yes.’ She said, ‘You made a good trade. But in the future don’t ship anything outside of Canada without first filling out the application form.’ And so I went ahead and did it, and I begged for forgiveness afterwards.” Sipe is now in the process of restoring the old engine, quite certain that he can get it to run again. For him, the project isn’t just about restoring the engine, however. “Current generations of people don’t realize the potential that we had, the potential that we still could have today,” he said. “Canadians, we tend to be a self-doubting lot, and we don’t realize the greatness that we can achieve if we simply put our minds to it.” “I don’t bemoan the loss of the Avro Arrow or the Orenda Iroquois,” Sipe continued. “But what I would like to do is restore some of that former glory. And that is my plan, to take that engine and to reassemble it. And, one day, that engine will run again. I have the resources available
“All of the big inch pipeline around here use turbine engines to move the natural gas.”