June Callwood,the Toronto based, well respected journalist, took reporting the Arrow and Iroquois programs progress to heart. She even went so far as to get a ride in a USAF B-47 so she could report first hand how it felt to control the big bomber in the air. Her reporting was at a gut level...the short paragraph reproduced to the left of her photo was, I believe, the start of the “One got away” legend. My findings clearly show all Arrows in various stages of destruction. The photos show RL-203 to be last...since its wing tips are at NAM, it did not fly away either. When I showed June these findings she stopped talking...slowly tears welled up in her eyes... years of hope that one did get away were shattered with the realization that nothing flyable did! Of course we know today that lots of the Arrow did escape the wreckers furnace but basically at the hands of a very few persistent and ironically, government employees.
A Department of Defence Production memo discussing the Arrow dismantling process at Avro’s Malton plant. The J-75 engines fetched less money than expected when sold back to the U.S.
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Memo, DDP file, National Archives
Zooming in ...
Journalist June Callwood hitching a ride in a USAF B-47 in 1958.
A Herb Nott Photo
Photo, Macleans Magazine, 1958
The dirty business begins - The Arrow Scrapbook