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Right: A crane is used to lower the central component of the 6-Viper test rig that was used, assembled and run by the Special Projects Group at Avro Canada, Malton. USAF Below right: Members of the SPG monitor assembly of the 6-Viper test rig as the central component is lowered into place. USAF gramme. It also stands to reason that using a foreign contractor like Avro Canada to under- take a top secret USAF aviation project would have caused strong protests from a tough indi- vidual like Kelly Johnson, who headed Lock- heed’s Skunk Works. Throughout the 1950s there was consider- able speculation that Russia undertook a sim- ilar programme to Silver Bug and that these aircraft were built, tested and flown across US territories on reconnaissance missions. At the start of Project Y John Frost believed this to be a distinct possibility and similar fears within the Pentagon may have encouraged the secret completion of one or two experimen- tal aircraft. With defence contractors enjoy- ing low labour and material costs during the 1950s, it was much easier to convert a new idea into hardware and conceivably a US company like Lockheed might have com- pleted this work, passing these aircraft to the USAF for testing at a location such as Groom Dry Lake, Nevada. Having said that, there is absolutely no supporting evidence and so this remains unlikely, despite numerous UFO reports from the area. During the development of the Avrocar Frost had discovered the ground cushion effect and this was fully exploited by the British designer Sir Christopher Cockerell, who is widely credited with inventing the Hovercraft. Apparently Frost was far from happy that Cockerell had effectively taken all the glory for his discovery. Disillusioned with the aviation industry, John Frost moved to New Zealand when Avro Canada folded and took up a position with the Airworthiness Sec- tion of the Civil Aviation Administration. Frost briefly returned to Canada in 1964, becoming involved in a boat business in Van- couver. But things didn’t work out and he returned to New Zealand, becoming the Technical Services Engineer for Air New Zealand. From then until his retirement in 1978, Frost was responsible for many clever innovations and engineering improvements that included the tail docking system used by Air New Zealand which allowed DC-10 ser- vicing and engine changes. After his retire- ment, Frost continued to design aircraft and was working on a small man-powered glider when he died on 9th October 1979. 81 Canada’s Cold War Saucers