On February 2nd 1959 a Trans Canada Airlines Viscount landed wheels up at Malton Airport, blocking the main runway. Test Pilot Peter Cope diverted to RCAF Station Trenton the only time the Avro Arrow landed anywhere but at Malton. The aircraft stayed overnight and departed with “Spud” Potocki at the controls the next morning. Photos by BGen R. M. Cox
“Some people talk about courage. Well, we took a stand in reference to the ‘Arrow.’ No one wanted to take that stand…. As I look back on it, I think it was one of the decisions that was right. Here was an instrument beautiful in appearance, powerful, a tribute to Canadian production…. This instrument that was otherwise beautiful, magnificent in its concept, would have contributed little, in the changing order of things, to our national defence.”
Right Honourable John G. Diefenbaker – January 25, 1963, House of Commons.