Background

In April 1953 the RCAF issued specification Air 7-3 requesting design studies for a prototype All Weather Aircraft.
Specifications demanded a fighter that could take off from a 6000ft runway, reach Mach 1.5, reach 50 000ft, carry two crew, and operate reliably in the harsh Canadian climate. Basic design was completed in 1954 and the RCAF gave the craft the designation CF-105. In 1957 after much work with wood mock-ups the CF-105 was given the name Avro Arrow.
It took 28 months from the release of the drawings in 1955 to the roll out in late 1957 with the first test flight taking place early 1958. In February 1959 the Arrow program was cancelled by the Canadian Government.
The Government ordered anything related to the Arrow scrapped, the nose of #206, landing gear, controls from the cockpit and two wing panels were the only parts of any Arrow to survive. These reside at the National Aviation Museum in Ottawa (Canada), a high-water mark in Canadian aerospace engineering.
Aircraft that flew:- #25201 thru #25205
Aircraft #25206 thru #25210 scrapped at jig stage.
The AVRO CF-105 was give or take 15 years ahead of its time and proved to the world that Canada had the knowledge and skilled workforce to give the Superpowers world class competition in aircraft design.
The above information was gleaned from the excellent Boston Mills Press:- Avro Aircraft Arrow.

The Kit

The model arrived in a strong top-opening shipping box with the manufacturers box inside. The kit was made in the Czech Republic.

Contents

-20 cast resin parts with very fine panel lines which may need to be rescribed to avoid disappearing during painting.
-2 Vacuum formed Canopy’s.
-1 styrene rod for nose probe.
-1 sheet of decals.
-2 sheets of assembly instructions.

Cockpit

The cockpit is moulded into the fuselage. There is one seat back for the front cockpit and no other detail parts are supplied. Fortunately the models scale and canopy glaze not to much will be seen.

Canopy

The model has two vacuformed canopies which are thin and clear.

Fuselage

The cockpit and lower fuselage are a one piece moulding. The fuselage behind the cockpit is moulded with a hollow which can be used to place weights to ensure that we do not have a tail sitter.

Wings

The wings are a one-piece casting of the top and bottom delta with three casting tabs. The wheel wells are cast in the underside of the wing but have zero detail cast, are too shallow and the wrong shape. Being on the underside as it is, it may not be worth the effort to re-work. The empennage is also cast as one piece and appears to be accurate.

Undercarriage

The undercarriage assemblies are like wheels on a stick and likely to collapse under the weight of the fuselage. I will be rebuilding these out of brass and styrene but will retain the kit wheels and tires.
The undercarriage doors do not have the correct shape and are too thick so styrene replacements would be advisable.

Armament

The Arrow was designed for armament "Pods" of different weapons to be loaded, but these were mainly wood mock ups.

Decals

The decals are printed by YKraft of Japan.
The colours and register look very nice but the test will be at application time.
Aftermarket decals in 1:144 are available.

Instructions

The instructions are printed on two sheets using three sides. The quality of printing for the parts assembly drawing is poor but the part count is low so one can be expected to survive this. The two pages of decal placement and colour call outs are okay but no paint numbers are given.

Accuracy

"I don't compare models to drawings or published measurements. When assembled it will look like a Arrow "
BUT,
In this case I have a very good reference book (as noted) and included are 1:144 scale drawings.
The photos of the parts laid out against drawings reveal the fuselage is moulded shorter in length but correct in width (unlike the larger scale Hobby Boss which is way off). The moulding blocks will have to be blended to the attached profile to make up for the shortage of resin length.
Other subassemblies (as noted) will need to be fabricated to produce a more accurate model.

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