Seriously the Avro Arrow is such a myth
Ranks right up there with Bigfoot
We all like to think it is a huge source of Canadian pride that we built the best airplane in the world
But
Mar 25 1958 was the first time an Arrow ever flew (and was discontinued by 1959)
In that same year the F104 Starfighter sets world altitude and speed records (this plane design lasted until 2004 in active service, although obviously at end of life it was no longer the best out there)
I would also point out that Avro was a British company who made numerous other designs (eg Avro Anson in same year) non of which were world beating super planes so why would the Arrow be so miraculously better?
CF-103 (cancelled) & CF-105 Arrow (cancelled)
Only plane we ever produced from this series was the CF-100 Canuck (a plane that existed 1950 to 1981 but so feeble I am sure most people reading this have never even heard of it without Google)
TS140 (cancelled) VZ9 (test vehicle only) C102 (prototype only)
Avro Canada built jack & shit
Lots of dreams but every project they started failed miserably
Yet the Arrow was to be the greatest plane ever uh huh
Canadian delusion much?
The Avro Arrow was a twin engine jet designed to intercept the long range Soviet bombers as they entered Canadian airspace. The twin engines proved very insightful when Canada bought single engine US aircraft only to have almost half of them crash from engine failures. F-104 Starfighter was a missile with fins. While the F-104 set a speed performances it was ill suited for combat because of limited maneuverability and fared poorly when matched against soviet counterparts. It was like using a race car to fight in a tank battle - fast but not effective.
A comparison of these aircraft including the 'Widow maker' is here- link:
http://va3kgb.ve3kbr.com/cf105/specifications.htm
It is also curious with your assertion that Avro was renowned at making shit that US contractors were lined up to take Avro engineers to head key roles in the NASA program. Project Manager - Mercury & Gemini Programs, Chief Engineering Designer of the Lunar Landing Module, Flight Director, Gemini and Apollo Programs were among many of the Avro designers of 'shit' that found themselves in NASA as the Avro Arrow was cancelled.
As for the Avro Arrow itself - it had many firsts now common in modern jets:
The CF-105 Avro Arrow was:
1) First a/c designed with digital computers being used for both aerodynamic analysis and designing the structural matrix (and a whole lot more).
2) First a/c design to have major components machined by CNC (computer numeric control); i.e., from electronic data which controlled the machine.
3) First a/c to be developed using an early form of "computational fluid dynamics" with an integrated "lifting body" type of theory rather than the typical (and obsolete) "blade element" theory.
4) First a/c to have marginal stability designed into the pitch axis for better maneuverability, speed and altitude performance.
5) First a/c to have negative stability designed into the yaw axis to save weight and cut drag, also boosting performance.
6) First a/c to fly on an electronic signal from the stick and pedals. i.e., first fly-by-wire a/c.
7) First a/c to fly with fly by wire AND artificial feedback (feel). Not even the first F-16's had this.
8) First a/c designed to be data-link flyable from the ground.
9) First a/c designed with integrated navigation, weapons release, automatic search and track radar, datalink inputs, home-on-jamming, infrared detection, electronic countermeasures and counter-countermeasures operating through a DIGITAL brain.
10) First high wing jet fighter that made the entire upper surface a lifting body. The F-15, F-22, Su-27 etc., MiG-29, MiG 25 and others certainly used that idea.
11) First sophisticated bleed-bypass system for both intake AND engine/exhaust. Everybody uses that now.
12) First by-pass engine design. (all current fighters have by-pass engines).
13) First combination of the last two points with an "ejector" nozzle that used the bypass air to create thrust at the exhaust nozzle while also improving intake flow. The F-106 didn't even have a nozzle, just a pipe.
14) Use of Titanium for significant portions of the aircraft structure and engine.
15) Use of composites (not the first, but they made thoughtful use of them and were researching and engineering new ones).
16) Use of a drooped leading edge and aerodynamic "twist" on the wing.
17) Use of engines at the rear to allow both a lighter structure and significant payload at the centre of gravity. Everybody copied that.
18) Use of a LONG internal weapons bay to allow carriage of specialized, long-range standoff and cruise missiles. (not copied yet really)
19) Integration of ground-mapping radar and the radar altimeter plus flight control system to allow a seriousstrike/reconnaissance role. The first to propose an aircraft be equally adept at those roles while being THE air-superiority fighter at the same time. (Few have even tried to copy that, although the F-15E is an interesting exception.)
20) First missile armed a/c to have a combat weight thrust to weight ratio approaching 1 to 1. Few have been able to copy that.
21) First flying 4,000 psi hydraulic system to allow lighter and smaller components.
22) First oxygen-injection re-light system.
23) First engine to have only two main bearing assemblies on a two-shaft design.
24) First to use a variable stator on a two-shaft engine.
25) First use of a trans-sonic first compressor stage on a turbojet engine.
26) First "hot-streak" type of afterburner ignition.
27) First engine to use only 10 compressor sections in a two-shaft design. (The competition was using 17!!)
If it was a shit design, too bad the USA didn't let us sell it to the Soviets instead of having everything torched and taking our engineers all with the support of the Conservative government at the time.