Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Canadian Arrow Completes Drop Test

Posted by michael on from the look-out-below,-eh dept.

hpulley writes "The Canadian press is reporting that X-Prize entrant the Canadian Arrow made its first successful crew compartment drop test on Saturday. It is essentially a modern version of the German V2 rocket. This test was just a drop of the crew compartment to test the parachutes. Next comes a launch abort test to see if the crew can be safely sent away from the vehicle. No word yet on when they might launch the consecutive flights in two-week turnaround for the prize. Fellow Canadian entrant the da Vinci Project will try to launch October 2nd. In the fall, venerable model company Estes Rockets will have a new model of the Canadian Arrow along with models of other entrants like the Rubicon." Oddly enough, I saw the crew compartment being driven around in Toronto on Saturday morning (towed behind a white pickup truck), but I didn't know what they were up to.

2 of 142 comments (clear)

  1. It's named after the legendary Avro Arrow by Viking5150 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The Canadian Arrow was named after the Avro Arrow, a revolutionary jet interceptor built in Canada in the 1950s during the height of the cold war. It was years ahead of any other jet interceptor design at the time.

    "A source of national pride, the Arrow incorporated advanced technical innovations and became a symbol of Canadian excellence.

    One of the finest achievements in Canadian aviation history, the delta wing Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow was never allowed to fulfill its mission. The Arrow weapons platform along with the Iroquois engine was cancelled by the Conservative Diefenbaker government February 20, 1959, less then 3 weeks before the MK2 Arrow was to take flight."

    http://www.avroarrow.org/

  2. Woot for canada by g-to-the-o-to-the-g · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Seeing as I haven't heard much news on any non-Canadian teams other then spaceshipone, this is awesome for Canada. We're going to be the first to make an official launch, and we now possibly have a second on the go. As things get closer to October (Canadian team launches on the 2nd, Americans on the 4th) this whole X-Prize thing is starting to get really interesting. Its pretty hard to predict how things will turn out right now, but it's definitely going to get very exciting.

    On another note, I only live about 4 hours from where the first Canadian team is launching, so I'm going to get to experience that.

    --

    Hi there