SHUTTING DOWN THE NATIONAL DREAM. A.V. ROE AND THE TRAGEDY OF THE AVRO ARROW.

Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1988. 320 pp, large 8vo (9 1/2" H). B&w photographs. "In fourteen short, precocious years, from 1946 to 1959, A.V. Roe Canada and its two subsidiaries, Avro Aircraft and Orenda Engines, almost single-handedly set the aviation world on its ear. Their designers and engineers were described by NATO's General Norstad as 'just about the best team anywhere'. By 1958 Avro had designed, and was about to produce, the most sophisticated piece of aviation design and technology the world had ever seen: the Arrow, decades in advance of world competition. Truly, they had redefined the national dream. On Februrary 20, 1959, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, more at home with the cost of prairie grain than the cost of hi-tech aircraft, cancelled the Arrow and, to ensure the annihilation, ordered the immediate scrapping of the six existing planes. (Mysteriously, one of the aircraft may have escaped the cutters' torches, giving rise to the notion of a 'Phantom Arrow'.). (This book tells) the story behind the story of A.V. Roe and the fabled Arrow. A story of the right stuff at the wrong time. A tragedy of government errors. A love story of a nation, a plane, and a dream." Minor wrinkling at top/bottom of spine, tiny ink mark on fore-edge of text block. Dust jacket has minor wear/wrinkling at top of spine and flap-folds, soft crease at top of front panel, small damp stain at top inside of spine, very light rubbing, very light browning at top of flaps.. Not Signed. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good.