Avro Arrow

Developed by Canadian company AVRO, the Arrow was built to defend Canada from air attack over the NorthernCanada. Since this area is cold and vast, a normal jet just wouldn't do. What was needed was dual pilot jet capable of supersonic speed (mach 2) with a large flight range. This was simply not available, and no country was willing to design such a craft. AVRO took on the project to build the supersonic jet in the early fifties.

See http://exn.ca/FlightDeck/Arrow/ for an indepth look at the Arrow.

Before the first true functioning craft was ready, (previous air flights were done with a weaker engine) the project was cancelled. For some reason, the project was not left for re-evaluation, but was destroyed.

This cancellation and destruction set back Canadian aviation (and arguably the Canadian economy) and it has never fully recovered. The design team had scattered and moved on (to work on the Concorde and NASA Gemini Space Program.)

After the cancellation and destruction, less capable aircraft were later purchased from the US, at a higher cost than what the Arrows would have cost. Stupid, stupid, stupid politics.

Remember however that politics and waste isn't the sole province of politicians. I know someone who was a draftsman for Avro at the time and directly experienced the waste and mismanagement which led to the cost overruns that the politicians used as an excuse to kill the project.

Moral: Just because your project is so great that it is 'obviously great' don't pretend it can't be canned.