In light of derek_starship’s thread, I got thinking about a great Canadian project that never came to pass, due, some say, to pressure on the then-Prime Minister John Diefenbaker from President Kennedy.

It was called the Avro Arrow, and controversy has surrounded it ever since.

Most unfortunately, it caused a brain-drain from the Canadian scientific and engineering community, that saw many leave for NASA and other projects further afield.

What other great losses come to mind?

Mint Sauce keyring.

Similar to the Avro Arrow, the BAC TSR-2.

British Railways – the spectacular engineering project that was arguably stolen from under our feet?

Transpennine electrification.

At Hopetoun House at South Queensferry there is an exhibition of drawings of the proposed tunnel they wanted to build under the Firth of Forth before the rail bridge was built. I have never understood why they didn’t go for this option for the latest bridge project.

I also have a book about the Falkirk Wheel, which again has some of the crazy “drawing board” ideas, my favorite of which is a giant egg filled with waterthat boats sailed into when it was standing on one end, it then lay down and they sailed out the side door. Genuis !

The UK Water Grid

Mint Sauce keyring.

Yes! Surely it’s long-overdue a resurrection ? I lost mine four years ago and have been feeling quite bereft. Had it for decades, often used that lovely concave, textured back as a meditational aid/worry-bead (the thumb rests so comfortingly in there)

Why not bring back Mint Sauce Keyring, MBUK? And no changes please. Not a one!

The RTV31 hovertrain….

http://www.railworld.net/rtv31.php

Watkins Tower in Wembley, which stood (or started to stand…) where Wembley Stadium ended up…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watkin’s_Tower

Reading the avro thing, surely the documents are declassified now?

That’s a good point, wysiwyg. I seriously think it will make a good topic for some doctoral thesis in the near future.

Whoever gets their hands on any real evidence first will go down in Canadian history him/herself.

Lockheed X-33.

UK Large-Scale Wind Power Programme, abandoned by UK government, Germans and Dutch picked it up and now it is worth billions to their economies. Some wild and wacky looking turbines.

B-70 Valkerie

Over the years I have seen regular reports and papers on options to build tunnels to Ireland, USA and Shetlands from mainland UK.

I was also involved in a feasibility for a tunnel from Gibraltar to Nth Africa, (that would have been a focal point in today’s climate!!).

Also a UK ‘hadron collider’ type tunnel in the UK, (still a goer if funding can be sorted).

Large deep storage caverns for nuclear waste in UK, (no guesses where that might be located 😉 )

Chipping Norton hopefully

Great shame TSR 2 never made it to active duty.

General Atomic’s Orion, solar system exploration (and world domination) was in our grasp.

the british breaking the sound barrier in the air. (i know we have on land though 😉

This, in South London – 300m high proposed in 1829 – that would’ve been visible from half way across Southern England

More here

This, the Ekranoplan! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caspian_Sea_Monster

I always though the Valkyrie was just an exercise in “lets see if we can bankrupt the soviet union by copying this” by the US?

The Queen Elizabeth carriers with cats and traps.

Instead we decided to make the worlds biggest STOVL carrier, a gigantic missile magnet without the CAP/intercept range to keep anti ship missiles out and a normal operational aircraft complement the size of a carrier a third of the size. The **** geniuses.

British Railways – the spectacular engineering project that was arguably stolen from under our feet?

On that – the APT.

I’ll also add the Tupolev TU-144.

Technically both ‘were’, but kinda not.

Wasn’t the Afro arrow copied almost entirely by the good old ussr as the fox at mig 25, or so I heard, the factory was riddled with agents.

Avro not a bloody Afro ! Typically USSR spell corrected to user . Typical products of today, no history!