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Left: Avro Canada CF-100 all-weather jet fighter. John Frost was recruited to head the design team for this aircraft in 1947. RCAF Below: Early 3-view drawing (left) and early sectional drawing (right) of Project Y concept. via Bill Rose and Avro Canada was then suggested that the aircraft might be raised up by about 40° and take off in this posi- tion after a short run, using two retractable forward wheels on long struts plus a tail- wheel. This proposal was also rejected and Frost decided to redesign Project Y as a tail sitter, which took off and landed from a near-verti- cal inclination. In the tail-sitter configuration, the exhaust flaps were removed and gases were ducted to outlets along each side of the aircraft and through large slots next to the tail. These exhaust vents were subject to a num- ber of design revisions that affected the over- the CF-100 fighter programme. Itseems there _ ship, which was a standard procedure for all _all appearance of the aircraft, finally giving it were problems with this aircraft and Frost defence workers born overseas. With a brief an arrowhead or spade shape. would later admit that he didn’t like the _ to start designing a supersonic daylight VTOL There have been many claims that Project CF-100 very much. He once referred toitasa interceptor called Project Y, John Frost Y was derived from work carried out by Ger- ‘clumsy thing ... all brute force’. But, that said, recruited aerodynamicists Thomas Desmond man engineers during World War Two and it Frost corrected the aircraft's shortcomings Earl and Claude John Williams for his team. _ has been suggested that Frost participated in and began work on an improved swept-wing Initially, Frost’s small group of about eight | debriefing German designers who worked on variant, although this was never built and designers and engineers considered a flying secret cutting-edge wartime aviation pro- Avro Canada soon moved on to the highly — saucer-shaped aircraft, which would utilise jects. Some evidence of this has come from advanced CF-105 Arrow. engine exhaust around three-quarters of the searches conducted at Canada’s National In 1951, Frost was appointed as head of _ vehicle to provide lift and forward flight. The Archives. According to documents recently Avro Canada’s secret Special Projects Group exhaust system was controlled by a seg- retrieved by one researcher, an unusual (SPG) and the following year he and his fam- _ mented system of flaps, but engineering trials meeting took place at a Canadian Govern- ily were asked to take out Canadian citizen- determined that this idea was unsound. It ment Facility in West Germany during 1953. Below: Early 3-view drawing (left) and early sectional drawing (right) of Project Y concept. via Bill Rose and Avro Canada TOP VIEW "AIR. INTAKE SLOTS ROTATING POWER PLANT HOUSING REAR VIEW DEFLECTOR VANES FOR CONTROL HEAD-ON VIEW AIR INTAKE SLOTS 4.0! (Approx): 58 Secret Projects: Flying Saucer Aircraft