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Left and below left: Avro Canada WS-606A four- engine configuration. USAF Bottom left: Avro Canada WS-606A two-engine configuration. USAF conducted. Then the programme seems to have faltered, with disagreements taking place between the USAF and Avro concern- ing a number of technical issues. Finally, on 22nd March 1958 Joseph Ellis, who headed the Design Branch of the USAF’s Aircraft Laboratory, recommended that all work on the supersonic WS-606A project should be halted. On 20th February 1959 Avro employees were laid off following the highly controversial cancellation of the CF-105 Arrow, but three days later all members of Avro’s SPG were reinstated. Work resumed on Avrocar and the supersonic WS-606A air- craft, with detailed research being carried out to resolve wing flutter and sonic fatigue prob- lems. Estimates made in June 1959 by the USAF suggested that the cost of fully develop- ing WS-606A would reach $50 million by the mid-1960s when the aircraft was expected to enter production. Wind tunnel testing contin- ued in America, with hundreds of hours being accumulated, and WS-606A was still a candi- date for use by the USAF and the RCAF until the middle of 1960, when it was formally cancelled. In the final analysis, the ill-fated but highly advanced CF-105 Arrow would have been a far superior military aircraft to the WS-606A Supersonic Application and, although it was larger and lacked a VTOL capability, there was plenty of potential for further develop- ment. Avro talked about developing the Arrow into a Mach 3 interceptor capable of reaching 100,000ft (30,000m) and into a long- range photo-reconnaissance aircraft. The Canadian government jointly funded WS-606A with the USAF and millions of dol- lars were spent on its development, with little or nothing to show at the end of the day. Running in parallel and controlled by the same USAF group was another potential U-2 replacement known as the CL-400 Suntan. Secretly developed by Lockheed’s Skunk Works under the direction of Kelly Johnson, this big hydrogen-fuelled aircraft also proved to be a costly technological step too far and finally met with cancellation. In 1959 the Mach 3+ Lockheed A-12 Blackbird was selected as the follow-on spyplane to the U-2, pushing the Mach 6 Convair Kingfish out of the way. Perhaps rather surprisingly, all USAF Blackbirds are now in museums, while later versions of the U-2 remain in service! Precise histories of the supersonic WS-606A and 74 Secret Projects: Flying Saucer Aircraft