Avro Canada CF-103

CF-103

Picture - CF-103 mock-up at the Avro company

Role: Interceptor
Manufacturer: Avro Aircraft Limited (Canada)
Status: Cancelled December 1951
Primary user: Royal Canadian Air Force (intended)
Number built: 1 (mock-up)
Developed from: Avro Canada CF-100

The Avro Canada CF-103 was a proposed Canadian interceptor, designed by Avro Canada in the early 1950s as a development, and possible replacement of the company's CF-100 Canuck, that was entering service at the time with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). Although intended to be capable of flying at transonic speeds, the CF-103 only proffered a moderate increase in performance and capability over the CF-100; subsequently, the aircraft never progressed beyond the mock-up stage.

Design and development

Even before the prototype of the CF-100 had flown, Avro Canada was conducting studies of potential advanced variations of the aircraft, as the RCAF was seeking an interceptor with greater high-speed performance. Due to the perceived limitations of the CF-100's original "thick", straight wing, Chief Designer John Frost proposed a series of refinements that included a thinner swept wing. In December 1950, the Avro Aircraft Design Office decided to proceed with a redesign, primarily incorporating the early series CF-100 fuselage structure with a new swept wing and tail surfaces as part of the C-100S design study.

Frost considered the new design as an interim aircraft between the CF-100 and the more advanced C-104 project. The salient changes to the basic wing planform were in decreasing its chord and thickness, and adding a 42° sweep to the leading edge, creating a near-delta wing configuration; the tail surfaces were also swept back. One version that was considered featured two streamlined fuel tanks blended into the leading edge of the wings near the three/quarter position. Despite the use of more powerful engines, the redesign had very modest performance specifications, with a planned maximum diving speed of Mach 0.95, scarcely better than the placarded Mach 0.85 speed limit of the production CF-100 Mk 2 and Mk 3. Avro executives, recognizing that the company had already suffered due to the protracted development of the CF-100, determined that Frost's revised design would provide a "hedge" against the CF-100's failure to secure long-term contracts.

In 1951, the Canadian Department of Trade and Commerce issued an order for two prototypes and a static test airframe, under the CF-103 project designation. Jigs, tools and detailed engineering drawings were in place by June 1951, with wind tunnel testing, conducted at Cornell University, completed by November 1951. Although a wooden mock-up of the CF-103 was built, along with a separate cockpit area and engine section that was partially framed in, the mock-up did not feature an undercarriage unit nor any interior fittings. Two different tail designs were fitted with the initial effort only having a swept leading edge of the tail, while the definitive version had a much more raked appearance. The engineering and installation requirements for the CF-103's proposed Orenda 17 jet engines were not finalized, as the experimental "hybrid" using an Orenda 8 compressor unit and Orenda 11 two-stage turbine, matched to a "reheat" unit, had not been fully developed.

Cancellation

During 1951, flight tests carried out by Chief Development Test Pilot S/L Janusz Żurakowski and other members of the Flight Test unit, revealed the development potential of the CF-100 had outstripped the intended performance envelope of the CF-103, while Frost and the Design Office became preoccupied with more sophisticated designs as potential replacements for the CF-100. Work on the CF-103 stalled, with the maiden flight originally scheduled for the summer of 1952, postponed to mid-1953. With Cold War pressures mounting, the Canadian government demanded that production of the latest CF-100 fighter, as well as developing more advanced variants of the Canuck should predominate, leading the Avro company to curtail the moribund CF-103 project in December 1951.

Although the mock-up languished in the experimental bay at the factory, a dramatic event served to preclude any attempt to restart the project. On 18 December 1952, from a height of 33,000 ft (10,000 m), Żurakowski dived the CF-100 Mk 4 prototype (RCAF Serial No. 18112) to Mach 1.06. His "unauthorized" test flight resulted in the final scrapping of the mock-up.

Specifications

Picture - CF-103: original concept, c. 1950

Data from Avro Arrow: The Story of the Avro Arrow from its Evolution to its Extinction

General characteristics

Crew: 2
Length: 59 ft 9 in (18.2 m)
Wingspan: 43 ft (13.1 m)
Height: 16 ft (4.87 m)
Powerplant: 2x— Orenda 17 turbojets
Dry thrust: 7,275 lbf (34.36 kN) each
Thrust with afterburner: 8,490 lbf (37.8 kN) each

Performance

Maximum speed: Mach 0.85 (Mach 0.95 in dive)

Armament

Proposed

Forward-firing ventral gun pack containing eight .5-inch Browning M3 machine guns (200 rounds per machine gun)

CF-105 Arrow

Related development

CF-100 Canuck

Comparable aircraft

Gloster Javelin
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19PF
Sud-Ouest Vautour
Yakovlev Yak-25
Yakovlev Yak-28P/PM

Citations

Bibliography

Campagna, Palmiro. Requiem for a Giant: A.V. Roe Canada and the Avro Arrow. Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2003. ISBN 1-5500-2438-8.
Milberry, Larry. The Avro CF-100. Toronto: CANAV Books, 1981. ISBN 0-9690703-0-6.
Milberry, Larry. Sixty Years: The RCAF and CF Air Command 1924-1984. Toronto: CANAV Books, 1984. ISBN 0-9690-7034-9.
Page, Ron. Canuck: CF-100 All Weather Fighter. Erin, Ontario: Boston Mills Press, 1981. ISBN 0-919822-39-8.
Page, Ron, Richard Organ, Don Watson and Les Wilkinson ("The Arrowheads"). Avro Arrow: The Story of the Avro Arrow from its Evolution to its Extinction. Erin, Ontario: Boston Mills Press, 1979, reprinted Stoddart, 2004. ISBN 1-55046-047-1.
Stewart, Greig. Shutting Down the National Dream: A.V. Roe and the Tragedy of the Avro Arrow. Toronto: McGraw-Hill-Ryerson, 1991. ISBN 0-07-551119-3.
Valiquette, Marc-Andre. Destruction of a Dream: The Tragedy of Avro Canada and the CF-105 Arrow, Volume 1. Montreal: Marc-Andre Valiquette (self-published), 2009. ISBN 978-2-9811239-0-9.
Zuk, Bill. Avrocar, Canada's Flying Saucer: The Story Of Avro Canada's Secret Projects. Erin, Ontario: Boston Mills Press, 2001. ISBN 1-55046-359-4.
Zuk, Bill. Janusz Zurakowski: Legends in the Sky. St. Catharine's, Ontario: Vanwell, 2004. ISBN 1-55125-083-7.

Avro Canada CF-103 Pictures and Avro Canada CF-103 for Sale.

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Source: WikiPedia