Listen, I'll state this again for all those who don't know. I'm not an aeronautical engineer, I am an artist with a focus in on 3d animation, visual effects, motion capture and fine arts painting. I am however the son of a Professional Engineer, P.Eng, M.Eng, EE. and have grown up with a clear understanding and profound respect for engineers. Canada long ago abandoned the notion of building our own when Conservatives took blow torches to the original Arrow. Something to this day, Many Canadians are still resentful for. We can maintain our frustration, anger and hopelessness but frankly, I've been around that too long and I just decided to do something and so, here it is. We can complain or we can simply do something about it and that's exactly what I'm doing about it.
Inside my minds eye, walking within the abandoned, dust filled factory, housed the dreams of us all. The empty building, that once held the dreams of the nation in Ontario where thousands of Canadians, came together to form and build the Avro Arrow. I walk and sadly look upon the walls painted with poor graffiti, empty beer cans and broken hockey sticks strewn across the floor. Generations have come, growing up without any knowledge of this bird...fulfilling the dreams of Conservative Prime Minister John Diefenbaker. Step by step, I walk through this abandoned building, echos of history, excellence and passion pulse through my mind. I explore deep through this building and something draws me to a hidden corridor, down what seems like an increasingly cleaner area. I turn the corner and walk in and inside this room, this pile of ash lay upon an alter with the words of "If only" carved into its base. Something draws me in and I feel the instinct to reach into this pile of abandoned dreams and feel this warm, moving thing. I pull it out and all of a sudden I'm holding this little baby bird of a phoenix with a tiny maple leaf tattooed on her wings. I hold her in awe and she looked up, and we gaze into each others soul and I am left in complete awe and love with this bird. She chirps up. She looks at me with this smile and then she finds herself nestled into my jacket and cooing herself as if she's waited for someone to come in and take her to a new home.
As I begin to turn around to leave the room, I am confronted with a wall with a picture of those who built the original with the words on the wall "Take care of our bird, for nothing is as powerful is an idea whose time has come." along with a flag of the Royal Canadian Air Force. She bird chirps up again and I feel this notion that is time to leave. As I leave, this bird crawls up upon my shoulder and as I exit the building, I walk down the corridors and history comes alive and pauses in reality. With each step, I am back in the factory, all the workers are present, stopped and smiling as I walk out with this bird. As I pass each person, they all smile and disappear leaving once again an empty room. Thousands all appear and smile, escorting me out of that once bustling building of advanced Canadian aerospace.
We finally reach the opening and I find myself looking at the fading smiles of hope that this dream shall leave this abandoned building and find a new home with me, in my little two bedroom apartment. With each passing day, this little phoenix of a bird lived with me, she would sit beside me, encouraging me to design her. With each movement of my mouse as I sculpted her, I could hear her whispering to me to do this, alter that, put this in, take that out. Months went by and this tiny bird, grew into a large 9 foot tall giant bird. Many mornings I would wake up to this bird staring down at me, complete with her flight goggles and leather helmet, smiling and cooing at me, encouraging me to continue my work on her new body with the every now and then, she would occasionally slap me upside the head with her wing with a loving smile.
As time went on, this Super Arrow took shape and was finally released for her first flight back into the imaginations of all Canadians. As the son of an engineer and former RCAF fighter pilot, I am proud of her new body and many people have come to love this new bird as I have. She is is a lovely bird and I'm incredibly proud of her.
Since I've unveiled her, I've been inundated with emails of support with the occasional posting on youtube mocking the notion, or mocking my credentials or lack thereof within the field of aeronautical engineering. It is what it is. There are those who mock and belittle those who stand to build something new. These are the people who simply have no imagination, no vision and do not understand artists. Artists are those who seek to inspire, think outside the box and can see what others don't. We are those who operate in the currency of passion, emotion and we specialize in building things. We "put it out there" for people to judge, ridicule, support, love, hate and everything else under the emotional spectrum.
As an artist, I've chosen a path to inspire because a pound of inspiration is worth a megaton of negativity. There are those who seek to live in the darkness of ignorance and negativity and there are those who seek to live in the world of inspiration. I choose the latter. My training at Emily Carr University has taught me, engrained in me, reinforced the idea and I've since wrapped it in bullet proof armor the notion when it comes to dealing with negative people is that "I am here. This is my art. Deal with it.". Throw me into the shitstorm and throw me as much negativity as you possibly can generate and not only will I deal with it, I'll spool up my inspiration turbine of hope and blow away these winds of shit (Thank you to Trailer Park Boys, Mike Clattenburg and Mr. Lehey). There is nothing anyone can say that can discourage the notion of feeding a phoenix of inspiration.
So, where are we now. Well I've since been contacted by a master model maker and the only one in Canada building scale models of the Avro Arrow and is making flying models and he's offered to build the Super Arrow. She is OUR BIRD. It is a fundamental adherence to the notion that we as Canadians can do something for ourselves and we do not need permission to do it. We are a free nation and it is in that magnificent moment where there are thousands of Canadians who want to come together, donate what they can to help this bird come into reality.
I've decided to redesign the Super Arrow slightly, with some modifications to the landing gear and a few other things and I am going as fast as I can. I've been contacted by a number of other people offering to help and for that, I'm eternally grateful and hopeful we can come together and do something.
I have someone who is going to produce a video of her first flight as I am too busy to do that at present, that is under development at this moment, I've had feedback from certain people who have suggested improvements and a gentleman offered to help in organizational management and presentations.
Here is what I need. I need money to help pay for the development of the model. We need to buy some small turbines and all the gear to produce a scale model flying prototype to show what a group of committed Canadians can accomplish. I am looking at going down the crowdfunding route to develop a flying prototype. Please bare in mind, I'm a single designer, doing what I can to mobilize Canada behind something like this. I need help. Materials, engines and radios, sensors and more are not cheap. If you would like to help out in any way, please contact me at info@superarrow.ca. and I would enjoy talking with you.
I am never the less very excited about building this scale model that I want to fly. I am going to prove that we as Canadians do have what it takes to produce this. To those who read this, have followed this and want to make negative comments of any kind, do me a favor, keep them to yourself. I learned when a flag that Third Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry Battle Group gave me from Operation Apollo, which I arranged for a flight for on the Space Shuttle Atlantis on STS-115, that anything is possible. ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE, and there will always be the haters, those who doubt and nothing you say can and will change their mentality. When my flag was in orbit, it forever silenced any doubters and it is in that spirit that I state that we as Canadians can build her if we so chose to.
Now let me clarify one thing here. This bird has not been engineered at all. That at some point I hope will come. The original Avro Arrow has been and is still a superior design right now to the F-35. As the Super Arrow stands right now, the Super Arrow is only experimental in nature, but...who knows what can happen.
So with that said, I invite you to keep tabs on this, keep inspired and remember, Canadians can and should look after our own industries like those this bird and the Avro Arrow comes to represent. If we are to spend this level of money, then at the very least, we should be seriously looking at these birds, be it the original Arrow rebuilt or the Super Arrow or a combination of the two.
I wish you all nothing but the best. I am open to any ideas, help, suggestions or otherwise. I know there are many outstanding Canadians out there and if you do feel like contributing in some manner, please feel free to drop me an email at info@superarrow.ca.
No comments:
Post a Comment