Canadair CP-107 Argus

The Canadair CP-107 Argus, company designation CL-28, is a maritime patrol aircraft designed and built by Canadair for the Royal Canadian Air Force, which served through the Cold War in Maritime Air Command and later the Canadian Forces' Maritime Air Group. Derived from the Bristol Britannia airliner, it kept the Britannia's wings, tail surfaces and landing gear, changed to American materials and parts, but had a completely redesigned unpressurised fuselage with two 18 ft bomb bays and Wright R-3350 turbo-compound piston radial engines for fuel economy on long low-level missions. Canadair began work in April 1954, when it was the largest aircraft built in Canada, and used metal-to-metal bonding, titanium and structural plastic. A flight crew of 15 flew patrols averaging 18 hours with search radar, sonobuoys, a magnetic anomaly detector and up to 8,000 lb of weapons in the bays. Thirteen Mk 1 and 20 Mk 2 aircraft were built. In 1959 an Argus set a Canadian military record of slightly over 31 hours for the longest unrefuelled flight, and the last service mission was flown on 24 July 1981, when the CP-140 Aurora replaced it.