Avro Canada CF-103

The Avro Canada CF-103 was a proposed Canadian interceptor that Avro Canada designed in the early 1950s as a development, and possible replacement, of its CF-100 Canuck. Chief Designer John Frost kept the early CF-100 fuselage structure but gave it a thinner swept wing with 42 degrees of leading edge sweep and swept tail surfaces, with two Orenda 17 afterburning turbojets planned. The gain in performance was modest, with a planned maximum diving speed of Mach 0.95, and Avro saw the design as a hedge against the CF-100 failing to win long-term contracts. In 1951 the Canadian government ordered two prototypes and a static test airframe, and a wooden mock-up was built, but flight tests showed that the CF-100 itself had outgrown the CF-103's intended performance, and Avro curtailed the project in December 1951. The mock-up was scrapped after the CF-100 prototype exceeded the speed of sound in a dive in December 1952. No aircraft was ever completed.