The
Tucker of the
aerospace industry. The ill-fated Avro Arrow
pioneered several
concepts that would show up on newer craft such as
fly-by-wire (seen on the
F-16 among others),
delta-wings (seen on the
Concorde, and
Space Shuttle), storing the
missiles inside the
fuselage instead of mounting them from the
wings to improve
aerodynamics (though this is done
nowdays mostly to make a
plane more
stealthy).
After the cancellation Avro's
assets were turned over to
its
British parent company Hawker Siddeley. All of the staff were
laid off and subsquently went to work for British and
American aerospace companies. Projects that former Avro
engineers worked on include the
Apollo program, the
Space Shuttle, the
Concorde, and the
Harrier. Part of the land that the Avro
plant occupied is now part of
Pearson International Airport.
Incidentally it was
Dwight D. Eisenhower and not
JFK that urged
John Diefenbaker to cancel the
Arrow.