We are fortunate that the only book on this mostly unknown airplane has stood the test of time over the 34 years since it was published. At 280 pages it’s very comprehensive, and while it veers off into the grass on a few occasions (We don’t need pictures of the Avro Iroquois or Orenda engines.) it’s usually related to the development and later uses of the C102, or how the company was leveraging its C102 experience and internal technologies to compete in the business.
The book is broken up into development, the hassles with the customer and the government, cancellation factors, oral histories from the participants and some excellent detail graphs, preliminary drawings and brochure excerpts.
Written by the Chief Engineer at a time when a significant number of the participants that were hostile to the aircraft were still alive; He handles the potential conflict with diplomacy while still making his own views known.
The oral histories are interesting as well simply because it reveals how young the employees were at Avro Canada while they were in the process of knocking the aerospace titans of the day off their thrones with this jet.
Overall, the book is well written and illustrated and will satisfy the curiosity of anyone interested in an obscure one off and unknown jet airliner 70+ years after its first flight.
Recommended without reservation for anyone interested in commercial aviation, jet airliners, aircraft manufacturing, Avro Canada, and Canadian Aviation. In fact, if you have an interest in any of those subjects you should own this book. It’s that good. ( )