AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 122 / 174

Plate 122 of 174 · Cold War · All-weather interceptor

Avro Canada CF-100 Mk.4B Canuck

Mk.4B, painted as 18393, IWM Duxford’s Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck Mk.4B and the only CF-100 in a British museum, built at Malton, Ontario (c/n 293), which served with the Royal Canadian Air Force, came to Britain in 1975 for Ormond Haydon-Baillie’s collection, registered G-BCYK, and has been at Duxford ever since: Canada’s all-weather interceptor, a two-seat fighter of 49 ft 11 in span with two Avro Orenda turbojets in long nacelles hugging the fuselage at the wing roots, a straight wing, a long tandem canopy over pilot and navigator, a large radome in the nose and a tailplane set high on the fin, shown standing level on its tricycle undercarriage with the gear down, as it stood until it was hung in AirSpace: dark green and grey disruptive camouflage over silver undersides, a black radome with white and red rings, the red bat-on-a-cloud badge of 440 Squadron on the nose, ‘RCAF’, a red maple-leaf roundel and ‘393’ on the rear fuselage, a Canadian Red Ensign and ‘18393’ on the fin, a red and white chequered rudder, and ‘RCAF’ and ‘393’ under the wings (no photograph shows the upper wing, so it carries the camouflage with no roundels).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as 18393, IWM Duxford’s Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck Mk.4B and the only CF-100 in a British museum, built at Malton, Ontario (c/n 293), which served with the Royal Canadian Air Force, came to Britain in 1975 for Ormond Haydon-Baillie’s collection, registered G-BCYK, and has been at Duxford ever since: Canada’s all-weather interceptor, a two-seat fighter of 49 ft 11 in span with two Avro Orenda turbojets in long nacelles hugging the fuselage at the wing roots, a straight wing, a long tandem canopy over pilot and navigator, a large radome in the nose and a tailplane set high on the fin, shown standing level on its tricycle undercarriage with the gear down, as it stood until it was hung in AirSpace: dark green and grey disruptive camouflage over silver undersides, a black radome with white and red rings, the red bat-on-a-cloud badge of 440 Squadron on the nose, ‘RCAF’, a red maple-leaf roundel and ‘393’ on the rear fuselage, a Canadian Red Ensign and ‘18393’ on the fin, a red and white chequered rudder, and ‘RCAF’ and ‘393’ under the wings (no photograph shows the upper wing, so it carries the camouflage with no roundels). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.2 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Mk.4B modelled here.

History

The CF-100 Mk.4B Canuck

After the war the Royal Canadian Air Force needed a fighter that could guard the country’s vast northern approaches against Soviet bombers at night and in any weather, with the range to cover long distances from few bases. No foreign design fitted, so in 1946 it asked the new A. V. Roe Canada company at Malton, near Toronto, for a two-seat, twin-engined jet with a radar operator behind the pilot. The design team under Edgar Atkin produced a big, straight-winged aircraft with its two engines in nacelles tight against the fuselage, and the first prototype was flown by the Gloster test pilot Bill Waterton on 19 January 1950.

Early aircraft were plagued by structural trouble in the wing spar, and the type did not reach squadrons until 1952–53, but it then became the backbone of Canadian air defence. The Mk.4, with a more powerful radar and fire-control system, was armed with unguided “Mighty Mouse” rockets, 48 in a retractable belly pack and 29 in each wing-tip pod, and the Mk.4B had the uprated Orenda 11 engines. In all 692 CF-100s were built, the only Canadian-designed fighter ever to go into mass production. Crews called it the “Clunk”, from the noise the nose wheel made as it retracted, and also the “Lead Sled”.

From 1956 four RCAF squadrons took CF-100s to France and West Germany with No. 1 Air Division, where they were for some years the only all-weather jet fighters NATO had on the Continent, and Belgium bought 53 Mk.5s. The Avro Arrow was meant to replace it, but the Arrow was cancelled in 1959 and the CF-101 Voodoo took over at home in 1961–62. CF-100s carried on as trainers, target aircraft and electronic-warfare aircraft until the last were retired in 1981.

This airframe

CF-100 Mk.4B 18393

18393The airframe modelled

18393 is a CF-100 Mk.4B, built by Avro Canada at Malton for the Royal Canadian Air Force. After its RCAF service it came to Britain in 1975 for Ormond Haydon-Baillie’s collection and was put on the British civil register as G-BCYK, and it has been at Duxford ever since. It is the only CF-100 in a British museum, and it now hangs from the roof of the AirSpace hall with its wheels up. The model shows it standing on its undercarriage as it was displayed until then, in its current scheme: dark green and grey camouflage over silver undersides, a black radome with white and red rings, the bat badge of 440 Squadron on the nose, a Canadian Red Ensign on the fin and a red and white chequered rudder.

See it at IWM Duxford

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the CF-100 Mk.4B Canuck in one UK collection. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 174 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.