Canada 20 Dollars Silver Coin 1996 Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck
Aviation Commemoratives
Obverse: Profile portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II created in 1990 and notable for the grand jewelled tiara and a beautiful string of pearls, this royal effigy was designed by Canadian artist Dora de Pedery-Hunt.
Lettering: ELIZABETH II D·G·REGINA · 1996 ·
Reverse: Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck. Portrait of Janusz Żurakowski in 24-karat gold-plated cameo, denomination below.
Lettering: CANADA 20 DOLLARS RRC
Engraver: Jim Bruce.
Edge: Reeded & Plain Sections.
Diameter: 38 mm.
Weight: 31.103 g.
Material: Silver.
Fineness: 0.925.
Denomination: 20 Canadian Dollars.
Produced By: Royal Canadian Mint.
Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck
The Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck (affectionately known as the "Clunk") was a Canadian jet interceptor/fighter serving during the Cold War both in NATO bases in Europe and as part of NORAD. The CF-100 was the only Canadian-designed fighter to enter mass production, serving primarily with the RCAF/CAF and in small numbers in Belgium. For its day, the CF-100 featured a short takeoff run and high climb rate, making it well suited to its role as an interceptor.
Design and development
In the early 1950s, Canada needed an all-weather interceptor (fighter) able to patrol the vast areas of Canada's north and operate in all weather conditions. The two-seat fighter crewed by a pilot and navigator was designed with two powerful engines and an advanced radar and fire control system housed in its nose that enabled it to fly in all-weather or night conditions.
Design of the XC-100 to meet a Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) specification for an all-weather fighter was initiated at Avro Canada in October 1946. Chief Engineer Edgar Atkin's work on the CF-100 was subsequently passed to John Frost (formerly of de Havilland) who, along with Avro's Chief Aerodynamacist Jim Chamberlin, reworked the original fuselage design. The CF-100 Mark 1 prototype, "18101," emerged from the factory, painted gloss black overall with white lightning bolts running down the fuselage and engines. The CF-100 prototype flew its maiden flight on 19 January 1950 with Gloster Aircraft Company Chief Test Pilot Squadron Leader Bill Waterton (on loan from Gloster, then also part of the Hawker Siddeley group) at the controls. The Mark 1 was powered by two Rolls-Royce Avon RA 3 turbojets with 28.9 kN (2,950 kgp / 6,500 lbf) thrust each.
The second prototype, serial number 18102, was also powered by Rolls-Royce Avons, although subsequent pre-production and production series aircraft used the Avro Orenda turbojet. Five pre-production Mk 2 test aircraft (serial numbers 18103-18107) were produced, all fitted with Orenda 2 engines; one was fitted with dual controls and designated a Mk 2T trainer. The first production version, designated Mk 3, incorporated the APG-33 radar and was armed with eight .50 in (13 mm) Browning M3 machine guns. The Mk 3CT and Mk 3DT were again dual control versions supplied to operational training units.
A CF-100 arrived at Eglin AFB, Florida, in mid-January 1955 for cold-weather tests in the climatic hangar. A seven-man RCAF team, headed by Flight Lieutenant B. D. Darling, which had previously conducted tests at Namao Air Base, Alberta, were part of the climatic detachment of Central Experimental and Proving Establishment. Tests were to begin in February.
In March 1956, four CF-100 Canucks were sent to Eglin AFB for comparative armament trials, and flown by USAF crews. The operational suitability tests, dubbed Project Banana Belt, were carried out by the 3241st Test Group (Interceptor) of the APGC's Air Force Operational Test Center, in conjunction with a project team from the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Production
In September 1950, the RCAF ordered 124 Mk 3s, the first entering service in 1953. These were armed with eight .50-caliber machine guns. The definitive rocket-armed Mk 4A was based on the prototype Mk 4 (a modified Mk 3), which first flew on 11 October 1952. The nose housed the much larger APG-40 radar with wingtip pods, each containing up to 29 Mk 4/Mk 40 "Mighty Mouse" Folding-Fin Aerial Rocket in addition to the guns. As the last 54 of an order for the Mk 3 were changed into the Mk 4 in 1954, total orders for the Mk.4 rose to 510. The Mk 4B version had more powerful Orenda 11s.
Five versions, or marks, were produced, ending, from 1955 onwards, with the high-altitude Mk 5 that featured a 1.06 m (3 ft 6 in)-longer wingtip and enlarged tailplane, along with removal of the machine guns. The proposed Mk 6 was to have mounted Sparrow II missiles and been powered by afterburning Orenda 11IR engines in an effort to provide an "interim" fighter prior to the introduction of the Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow. A projected transonic swept-wing CF-103 was built in mock-up form in 1951, but was considered obsolescent even before the CF-100's demonstrated ability to exceed the speed of sound in a dive. On 18 December 1952, Squadron Leader Janusz Żurakowski, the Avro company chief development test pilot, took the CF-100 Mk 4 prototype to Mach 1.0 in a dive from 30,000 ft (9,100 m), the first straight-winged jet aircraft to achieve controlled supersonic flight.
Operational history
The Canuck was affectionately known in the RCAF as the "Clunk" because of the noise the front landing gear made as it retracted into its well after takeoff. Its less-attractive nickname was the "Lead Sled", a reference to its heavy controls and general lack of maneuverability, a nickname it shared with a number of other 1950s aircraft. Others included CF-Zero, the Zilch, the Beast, all references to an aircraft many pilots considered less glamourous than RCAF day fighters like the Canadair Sabre.
The aircraft operated under the US/Canadian North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) to protect North American airspace from Soviet intruders such as nuclear-armed bombers. Additionally, as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), four Canuck squadrons were based in Europe with 1 Air Division from 1956–1962, and were for some time the only NATO fighters capable of operating in zero visibility and poor weather conditions.
When the Korean War started, the USAF was in urgent need of a jet-propelled, all-weather, interdiction/surveillance aircraft. The urgency was so great that the USAF was willing to consider two foreign designs: the CF-100 and the English Electric Canberra. The CF-100 was rejected because of insufficient range and payload. The English Electric design was selected and developed into the Martin B-57 Canberra.
The CF-100 served with nine RCAF squadrons at its peak in the mid-1950s. Four of these squadrons were deployed to Europe from late 1956–1962 under the NIMBLE BAT ferry program, replacing some NATO RCAF squadrons equipped with Canadair Sabre day fighters to provide all-weather defense against Soviet intruders. Canucks flying at home retained natural metal finish, but those flying overseas were given a British-style disruptive camouflage scheme: dark sea gray and green on top, light sea gray on the bottom.
During his Avro Canada years, the Chief Development Pilot, S/L Żurakowski, continued to fly as an aerobatic display pilot, with spectacular results, especially at the 1955 Farnborough Airshow where he displayed the CF-100 in a "falling-leaf." He was acclaimed again as the "Great Żura" by many aviation and industry observers who could not believe a large, all-weather fighter could be put through its paces so spectacularly. His performance led to Belgium purchasing the CF-100.
In its lifetime, 692 CF-100s of different variants were produced, including 53 aircraft delivered to the Belgian Air Force. Although originally designed for only 2,000 hours, it was found that the Canuck's airframe could serve for over 20,000 hours before retirement. Consequently, though it was replaced in its front line role by the CF-101 Voodoo, the Canuck served with 414 Squadron of the Canadian Forces at CFB North Bay, Ontario, until 1981, in reconnaissance, training and electronic warfare roles. After the CF-100 was retired, a number of aircraft still remain across Canada (and elsewhere) as static displays.
Its planned successor, the CF-105 Arrow along with the sophisticated Orenda Iroquois engine, both Canadian-designed, were cancelled in 1959 in a controversial decision by the Canadian government.
Specifications (CF-100 Mk 5)
General characteristics
Crew: 2, pilot and navigator
Length: 16.5 m (54 ft 2 in)
Wingspan: 17.4 m (57 ft 2 in)
Height: 4.4 m (14 ft 6 in)
Wing area: 54.9 m² (591 ft²)
Empty weight: 10,500 kg (23,100 lb)
Loaded weight: 15,170 kg (33,450 lb)
Max. takeoff weight: 16,329 kg (36,000 lb)
Powerplant: 2 × Avro Canada Orenda 11 turbojets, 32.5 kN (7,300 lbf) each
Performance
Maximum speed: 888 km/h (552 mph)
Range: 3,200km (2,000mi)
Service ceiling: 13,700 m (45,000 ft)
Rate of climb: 44.5 m/s (8,750 ft/min)
Thrust/weight: 0.44
Armament
Rockets: 2 wingtip pods of 29 x 70-mm (2.75 in) "Mighty Mouse" fin-folding aerial rockets
Janusz Żurakowski
Żurakowski was born to Polish parents in 1914 in Ryzawka, which had been a city of the Russian Empire since 1793 when it was removed from Poland in the Second Partition. In 1921, following the Polish-Soviet War, the Treaty of Riga established the frontier between Soviet Russia and the Second Polish Republic. The new border placed Ryzawka in Soviet territory and the Żurakowski family left their home and escaped into the newly established Polish Republic.
Żurakowski was educated in Lublin and at high school, he learned to fly gliders. In 1934, Żurakowski joined the Polish Air Force and entered the Polish Air Force Officers' School. After learning to fly powered aircraft in 1935, and graduating as a Sub-Lieutenant, he went on to serve as a fighter pilot posted to 161 Fighter Squadron in Lwów, and later, in 1939, as a flying instructor at Dęblin.
Second World War
In September 1939, "Black September", Żurakowski had his combat debut in an outmoded PZL P.7 trainer against a flight of seven German Dornier 17s attacking Deblin on 2 September. He managed to damage a Do 17 but was forced to break off combat when his guns jammed.
Following the defeat of Poland, Żurakowski made his way to England via Romania and France. Like many of his compatriots, he was smuggled out of the war zone with false documents and a new identity as a forester. Thousands of the Polish Air Force pilots who had made their way to France fought against Luftwaffe forces in the Battle of France. Żurakowski was originally posted to a fighter unit in France before he was selected to train as a bomber pilot in England. Once he arrived in England, the RAF changed its mind and sent him and the first group of Poles to fighter squadrons which were rapidly being deployed in anticipation of an attack on Britain in 1940.
Żurakowski was first posted as a Pilot Officer to 152 Squadron before joining No 234 Squadron initially stationed at RAF St Eval, Cornwall, a town named after the patron saint of flight testing. The squadron was moved forward to RAF Middle Wallop on 13 August 1940. He flew the Supermarine Spitfire Mk. 1 against the Luftwaffe shooting down a Messerschmitt Bf-110 over the Isle of Wight on 15 August 1940. After being shot down nine days later, he returned to duty, shooting down two Messerschmitt Bf 109Es on the 12th and 13th day after that. Near the conclusion of the Battle of Britain, he scored a "probable" over a Bf 110C on 29 September 1940. Following the decimation of 234 Squadron and its transfer to the north, Żurakowski asked for a transfer to No. 609 Squadron RAF, a Spitfire unit still in the front lines. From there, he was reposted as a flight instructor to a succession of Flight Training Units where he passed on his knowledge of combat flying to a new group of fighter pilots.
In 1942, now Flying Officer Żurakowski flew again with his countrymen on Spitfire IIs in No 315 Squadron rising to the post of Squadron Leader of No 316 Polish Fighter Squadron and Deputy Wing leader of Polish No 1 Fighter Wing stationed at RAF Northolt, often escorting USAAF bombers on daylight bombing raids. Żurakowski scored a probable over a Messerschmitt Bf 109G on 17 May 1943 while acting as the Wing Gunnery Officer. He was awarded the Virtuti Militari, the Polish equivalent of the Victoria Cross in 1943. Other awards included the Polish Cross of Valor (Krzyż Walecznych) and Bar (1941) and Second Bar (1943).
Postwar
After the war, Poland's Soviet-imposed communist government exiled all of the Polish fighter pilots who had flown with the RAF as part of a ploy to downplay Polish patriotism. As a result, S/L Żurakowski, among many other Polish war heroes, chose to stay in Britain. In 1944, he was posted to the Empire Test Pilots' School, graduating from No. 2 Course on 5 January 1945. From 1945 to 1947 Żurakowski worked as a test pilot with "C" Squadron of the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE) at RAF Boscombe Down, testing naval aircraft for the Air Ministry. Never having landed an aircraft on a carrier before, he practised landing on a deck painted on a runway at Naval Air Station East Haven. Following a brief training period, he proceeded to land the Supermarine Seafire, a navalised Spitfire, on the deck of HMS Ravager without incident.
"Zura" at work: Gloster Meteor London-Copenhagen-London record flight 1950
While still at Boscombe Down, Żurakowski also flew, among over 30 different types, the Vampire, the de Havilland Hornet, and the Gloster Meteor never letting pass, "an opportunity to give the staff a display that included single engine aerobatics." Acknowledged as one of the best aerobatic pilots in the UK, he gave a spectacular display at the Farnborough Airshow in June 1946, with the Martin-Baker MB 5, a piston-engined fighter designed too late to enter production.
Retiring from the RAF as Squadron Leader in 1947, Żurakowski was employed as Chief Experimental Test Pilot for Gloster Aircraft Company under Chief Test Pilot Bill Waterton, and when Waterton was away in Canada on assignment, assumed the role of Acting Chief Test Pilot. "Zura" (as he came to be known) tested the many experimental versions of the Gloster Meteor, Javelin, and Gloster E.1/44 fighters. He set an international speed record: London-Copenhagen-London, 4–5 April 1950. The attempt was organised by Gloster to sell the Meteor IV to the Danish Air Force and succeeded.
At the 1951 Farnborough Airshow, Żurakowski demonstrated a new aerobatics manoeuvre, the "Zurabatic Cartwheel", in which he suspended the Gloster Meteor G-7-1 prototype he was flying, in a vertical cartwheel. "This jet manoeuvre was the first new aerobatic in 20 years." The cartwheel used the dangerously asymmetric behaviour the Meteor had with one engine throttled back. The manoeuvre started with a vertical climb to 4,000 ft by which point the aircraft had slowed to only 80 mph. Cutting the power of one engine caused the Meteor to pivot. When the nose was pointing downwards, the second engine was throttled back and the aircraft continued to rotate through a further 360 degrees on momentum alone having lost nearly all vertical velocity. Carrying out the cartwheel and recovering from it without entering an inverted spin (which the Meteor could not be brought out of) required great skill.
In April 1952, Żurakowski and his family left for Canada where he became a test pilot for A.V. Roe Canada, concentrating on experimental testing. He broke the sound barrier on 18 December 1952, diving the CF-100 fighter, the first straight-winged jet aircraft to achieve this feat. While testing an experimental rocket pack on 23 August 1954, Zura survived an explosion that killed his observer, John Hiebert.
The most famous aircraft associated with Żurakowski was the Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow.
During the Avro Canada years, Żurakowski continued to fly as an aerobatic display pilot, with spectacular results, especially at the 1955 Farnborough Airshow where he displayed the CF-100 in a "falling-leaf". He was acclaimed again as the "Great Zura" by many aviation and industry observers. In 1958, he was chosen as the chief development test pilot of the new CF-105 Avro Arrow program. On 25 March 1958, with Żurakowski at the controls, Arrow RL 25201 took off from Malton, Ontario for its first flight. The flight lasted 35 minutes and was problem-free. Żurakowski continued in the flight test program. He flew Arrows RL 201, 202, and 203, over a total of 21 flights, 23.75 hours, reaching speeds of Mach 1.89 and an altitude of 50,000 feet.
After flying Arrow 203 on 26 September 1958, Żurakowski decided to give up test flying for good, fulfilling a promise he had made to his wife to stop experimental flying once he reached the age of 40, although he had already exceeded that age.
Later life
Żurakowski retired from active test flying in November 1958 but continued with the Avro Aircraft company as an engineer in the Flight Test Office. On 20 February 1959, the infamous "Black Friday", Żurakowski, along with the approximately 15,000 employees of Avro and Orenda plants learned that the Diefenbaker government had precipitously cancelled the Avro Arrow program and its Orenda Iroquois engine. The five flying examples and the newly constructed RL-206 (slated for a run at World Air Speed and Altitude records) along with all the assorted factory jigs and tools were broken up. Only the nose of Arrow 206 and sections of other Arrows now exist, on display at the Canada Aviation Museum in Ottawa.
After deciding to leave the aviation world altogether, Żurakowski and his family moved to Barry's Bay, Ontario to build Kartuzy Lodge, a small tourist lodge and resort which he and his family operated for over 40 years. During this period, he resorted to his engineering background when he "tinkered" with a number of sailboat, catamaran and ice-boats, of his own design and construction. Two of his hydrofoil boats are still used by Kartuzy Lodge renters.
Following a lingering battle with myelodysplasia, Żurakowski died at Kartuzy Lodge on 9 February 2004.
Honours
In recognition of his contributions to Canadian aviation, Żurakowski was inducted into Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame in 1973. He was further honoured in 1996 by the Royal Canadian Mint's release of a commemorative coin, the Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck which featured an insert of Janusz Żurakowski. In 1997, he was inducted into the Western Canada Aviation Museum "Pioneers of Canadian Aviation" annals, as well as being profiled in the following year in the documentary film, "Straight Arrow". On 23 July 1999, CFB Cold Lake (Alberta) Aerospace Engineering Test Establishment named its new facility, the "Żurakowski Building", and in September 2000, he became an Honorary Fellow of the Society of Experimental Test pilots, joining the ranks of Charles Lindbergh, Neil Armstrong, and Igor Sikorsky, among numerous other luminaries.
Żurakowski received the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland in 1999.
His adopted hometown built Żurakowski Park in 2003, recognizing his contributions to the community, as well as the world. Two imposing statues, of Janusz Żurakowski and his beloved Avro Arrow, dominate the arrow-shaped Żurakowski Park (an elongated triangle evocative of the Avro Arrow's profile) at the crossroads of two main streets in Barry's Bay, Ontario. A future museum and visitor's commemorative centre consisting of a gazebo and display area will be located at Żurakowski Park.
The former Gloster Aircraft company airfield at Hucclecote has become a residential division in Gloucester, UK and features Zura Avenue.
Canadian Coins
Canada 20 Dollars Silver Coin 1996 Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck