Crawford Gordon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Crawford Gordon Jr (26 December 1914 – 26 January 1967) had led wartime defense production in Canada under C.D. Howe during the Second World War.

Contents

[edit] Brief biography

Gordon was born in Winnipeg in 1914. He was the first child of Crawford Gordon Sr. and Ethel Fortune, the latter of whom had survived the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912.

Gordon was one of C.D. Howe's "boys" during the Second World War, helping the government organize industrial resources to meet the needs of wartime production and resource management.

In 1952, Howe called upon Gordon to become the new president of A. V. Roe Canada, and under Gordon's encouragement to designers at Avro, Avro offered to build the new supersonic jet interceptor identified by the Canadian Chiefs of Staff as needed to counter a Soviet Union bomber threat.

[edit] The Avro Arrow

Gordon continued to ask for further funding as the interceptor program for the Avro Arrow proceeded, particularly as the program scope expanded to include a new engine, when other manufacturers' engine designs were dropped or proved inadequate. When the Liberal government in which Howe served was defeated, Gordon had to deal with the new Progressive Conservative government of John Diefenbaker, a government that narrowly viewed such ambitious, costly projects.

Gordon may have clashed with the Diefenbaker government due to a number of pressures, including the unexpected delays in getting the Avro Arrow into production, and the unexpected threat to the Arrow from the rise of the missile.

Gordon's battles and gambles finally lost out when the Arrow program was canceled on 20 February 1959. Gordon was fired as Avro president not long after and died in New York on 26 January, 1967.

Dan Aykroyd appearing as Crawford Gordon in the CBC mini-series, The Arrow (1996).
Dan Aykroyd appearing as Crawford Gordon in the CBC mini-series, The Arrow (1996).

[edit] Crawford Gordon in entertainment media

Crawford Gordon was portrayed, with a good visible likeness, by Dan Aykroyd in the 1996 mini-series The Arrow. Dramatic licence may have been taken in this movie by showing Gordon's secretary Claire as being a mistress, and the breakup of that relationship during 1957 is shown as leading to drinking problems and depression. These drinking problems and depression then served to exacerbate his distrust of the Diefenbaker government into outright abuse. That abuse did not help with the government's disdain for the Arrow program while it was under budget pressure to make just one choice for aeronautic defense of Canadian airspace.

[edit] References

  • Stewart, Greig. Arrow Through the Heart: The Life and Times of Crawford Gordon and the Avro Arrow. Toronto: McGraw-Hill-Ryerson, 1998. ISBN 0-07-560102-8.
  • Stewart, Greig. Shutting Down the National Dream: A.V. Roe and the Tragedy of the Avro Arrow. Toronto: McGraw-Hill-Ryerson, 1991. ISBN 0-07-551119-3
  • Whitcomb, Randall.Avro Aircraft and Cold War Aviation. St. Catharine's, Ontario: Vanwell, 2002. ISBN 1-55125-082-9.
  • Zuk, Bill. The Avro Arrow Story: The Revolutionary Airplane and its Courageous Test Pilots. Calgary: Altitude Publishing, 2005, ISBN 1-55153-978-0.