SUNKEN HISTORY
Expedition finds Avro Arrow fighter jet model on the bottom of Lake Ontario,
“Well, we found one,” John Burzynski, leader of the Raise the Arrow expedition, told a news conference Friday morning before unveiling sonar images of a long-lost object that was a part of Canada’s most significant aviation program.
Burzynski confirmed that the expedition’s engineers have located one of nine models of the Avro Arrow that have been sitting at the bottom of Lake Ontario since they were launched in test flights between 1954 and 1957.
The Arrow was a fighter jet developed in the1950s that was lauded as a groundbreaking technological achievement before the program’s controversial cancellation by the Diefenbaker government in 1959.
The Arrow’s story, Burzynski said, was one of “the realization of dreams,” as well as the “bitter taste of defeat” when the program was cancelled and the only existing planes destroyed. Canadians were stunned when then-prime minister John Diefenbaker announced the cancellation, the reasons for which were never clear, but likely had to do with costs.
The Raise the Arrow expedition, Burzynski said, was not only about finding something that was lost; it was about the people who worked on the plane and all the Canadians who held memories of the Arrow dear.
The expedition spent 12 days since the end of July searching the lake.
The model, which remains on the floor of the lake, is about three metres long and two metres wide. Images show orange paint, a hallmark of the treasured Canadian technology, still intact and peeking through the zebra mussels that almost entirely cover its surface.
“I think being able to showcase using cutting-edge Canadian technology — being our sonar systems and underwater vehicles — to actually find and resurrect cutting-edge Canadian technology . . . I think it’s an amazing example of what we can do as Canadians looking back at our history,” said David Shea, vice-president of engineering for Kraken Sonar.
Shea remembers being fascinated by the Arrow as a child after reading his older brother’s history books on the aircraft. “I remember going through this book and looking at these jet fighters and I didn’t understand why they didn’t exist anymore,” he said. “Ever since then, growing up and going into engineering, I’ve been fascinated with the fact that Canada had such a cutting-edge technology and we were world leaders at one point in time.” The Avro Arrow program, Shea said, is unparalleled in the ability it had to inspire Canadian engineers. He hopes that the country is beginning to gain back some prestige in the field of science and technology — particularly as the advanced sonar technologies he uses proved successful in finding one Arrow model.
The discovery of the model is the biggest Arrow-related event since a full-sized replica of the plane was unveiled in 2006.
Shea is looking forward to going back out onto the water to find the other eight right away.
An archeological team led by Scarlett Janusas will now get to work on recovering the model. She said the team hopes to send divers down before the end of the season.
Once all the models are removed from Lake Ontario, they will be housed at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa and the National Air Force Museum of Canada in Trenton.