Supersonic jet replica will soon be unveiled at Mississauga park as work now underway

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Published July 6, 2023 at 3:42 pm

Avro Arrow Mississauga

Work has begun at a north Mississauga park that will soon offer people a glimpse of the city’s–and country’s–aviation history in the form of a near full-size replica of a ground-breaking supersonic aircraft once mass produced in Mississauga.

The foundation that will support the replica Avro Arrow at Paul Coffey Park in Malton, near Pearson Airport, is currently being installed in the park’s Flight Garden by builder FRAM + Slokker, City of Mississauga Councillor Carolyn Parrish said via social media on Wednesday (July 5).

“Really happy to see this project underway in the home of Canadian aerospace,” the councillor for Ward 5, which includes Malton, posted on Twitter.

The anchor cage, as it’s called, will physically support the replica Arrow, which is being completed at a facility in Barrie prior to its trip south to Mississauga in pieces by flatbed later this summer or early fall.

Once the unassembled parts arrive in town, they’ll be put together and installed at the Derry Rd. park.

The Avro Arrow was designed and built in Malton in the late 1950s before production was unceremoniously halted by the Canadian government in 1959.

At the time, the jet was widely thought of as the ultimate in Canadian aerospace achievement and one of the most advanced jets in the world.

The sudden halt of the $470-million Arrow program in 1959 put some 15,000 employees, many of whom lived in Malton, out of work.

In a nod to the significant place the 1950s’-era twin-engine supersonic jet has staked out in Mississauga’s history, the City of Mississauga is paying to have the near full-size replica built and installed at Paul Coffey Park.

While initial plans called for a full-size replica to be constructed, rising cost of materials prompted City officials to scale things back by about 20 per cent in order to stay on budget, Parrish said earlier.

When completed later this year, the replica Arrow will sit next to the restored CF-100 aircraft that’s been on display for decades at the park.

Together, they’ll be visible to those flying into and out of nearby Pearson Airport, City officials have noted.

The replica Arrow project was approved several years ago by City council at a total cost of $3.6 million. The City is picking up $2.2 million, with the rest coming from community donations and other sources.

The installation of the replica Arrow is part of a larger, ongoing redevelopment of the 112-acre Paul Coffey Park, a multi-use destination formerly known as Wildwood Park that opened in 1968.

Check out more photos of the Avro Arrow and the Malton plant where it was built.

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