AVRO DEMOLITION
Aerial View A.V. Roe Plant, Malton Ontario. (Photo: Brian Cuthbertson)
A.V. Roe Plant, Malton Ontario. (Photo: Brian Cuthbertson)
A.V. Roe Plant, Malton Ontario. (Photo: Brian Cuthbertson)
Main Administration Building, A.V. Roe Canada, Malton Ontario
TIME LINE
1938 - Establishment of the National Steel Car of Canada (N.S.C.C.) plant at Malton Ontario
1938 - Manufactured Westland Lysanders for service in Europe
1940 - Manufactured the famous 'O' or "Moon" squadrons flying spies and supplies to the French Resistance.
1941 - Manufactured about 50 Avro Ansons for the British Commonwealth Air Training Programme.
1942 - N.S.C.C. was declared a Crown Corporation and renamed "Victory Aircraft".
1942 - Malton site expanded to produce the Avro Lancaster long-range heavy bomber
1945 - By 1945, Victory Aircraft had produced 430 Lancaster's, 3,197 Ansons, 6 Lincolns, and 1 York
1945 - Avro U.K.'s managing director, Sir Roy Dobson, agrees to Canadian Minister C.D. Howe to take over the enormous Victory Aircraft facility on a rent-to-own basis.
1945 - A.V. Roe Canada Ltd. was formed as a subsidiary of the Hawker Siddeley Group Limited
1946 - Orenda Engines founded
1949 - August 10th, the Avro C-102 jet transport, now better known as the Jetliner, made its first flight. It was the first passenger jet flight in North America, and followed the first in the world, which was the Comet flight in the UK, by only 13 days. It was designed and built in Malton, Ontario.
1950 - New York Ticker Tape parade for A.V.Roe designers and the flight crew of the Jet Liner.
1950 - Despite wide US acclaim, production was halted by C.D. Howe. This decision was taken despite evidence that every major American air carrier was seriously considering purchasing Jetliners, as was the USAF and US Navy.
1950 - First flight of the Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck. Throughout the 1950's, 692 CF-100 long-range, all weather, day or night interceptors were built for the RCAF. These potent fighters became the backbone of Canada and NATO's air defence at night and in bad weather during the mid to late 1950s. The last CF-100 retired in September 1981.
1953 - CF-105 (Avro Arrow) Supersonic Interceptator project started
1954 - Work begins on the AVROCAR - a vertical lift flying saucer funded by the USAF.
1958 - By this time, Avro Aircraft Ltd. was the full owner of the following companies:
Canadian Applied Research Limited, Toronto
Canadian Car Company Limited, Montreal and Fort William, Ontario
Canadian Car Pacific Limited, Vancouver
Canadian Steel Foundries Limited, Montreal
Canadian Steel Improvement Limited, Etobicoke
Canadian Thermo Control Company, Montreal
Orenda Engines Ltd., Malton & Nobel, Ontario
Orenda Industrial Ltd., Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver
They partly owned:
Canadian General Transit Company, Montreal & Moosejaw (55%)
Dominion Steel & Coal Corporation Ltd., Montreal (77%)
Associated with:
Canadian Steel Wheel Ltd., Montreal
It had Can$310 million in assets, 16,000 shareholders (mostly Canadians), 41,000 employees and 6300 suppliers. They were the 3rd largest employer in Canada after the Federal Canadian Government and the Canadian Pacific Railway.
1959 - February 20, Arrow project cancelled by the Diefenbaker government, some 14,000 people at the Malton plant are laid off.
1961 - Experimented with manufacturing sports cars and cookware
1963 - Site purchased by Macdonell Douglas of Canada
1970 - "Special Projects A.V.Roe" becomes SPAR Aerospace
1995 - Orenda Engine survives through the years and is now the leading industry in the Magellan Aerospace Group, a Canadian company.
1997 - Site purchased by Boeing Canada
2003 - Announcement by Boeing that they have agree to demolish 70% of the original AVRO facilities before turning the property over to the Greater Toronto Airport Authority. . City of Mississauga intervenes and gives the site a temporary reprieve.
Photographs and Information provided by the Avro Advocacy Group
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