The everyday mind assumes that scientists have explored every corner of the earth but it is quite the contrary. Our planet still holds many secrets and unexplained mysterious, most of them hidden in plain sight. The basic facts are that 65% of our planet is unexplored and 95% of her water content remains a mystery to us.
Yes, that means there still CAN be mermaids! Why have we yet to map out the ocean? It’s for one simple reason, it is really tough. Think of the ocean as exploring a heavy dark mass of liquid atmosphere not much different from mapping outer space. With all that said, we have a story which follows an instance where one discovery led to the finding of something mythical, living, alien, and above all, extraordinary hidden in the watery depths of Lake Ontario.
Setting The Scene
It all started in August of 2017. A research team is setting up for a new expedition. They’ve arrived at Lake Ontario, in Canada. Deep inside the lake, there reportedly lies a piece of Canadian history.
This is an object so special that bringing it back to land will pull the eyes of the world to the shores of the lake. It won’t be easy to find, even less easy to recover, but if they can do it, the struggle will be forgotten in the euphoria. Welcome to Mission: Raise The Arrow.
Calling The Shots
Who is behind this daring rescue attempt? The team is working for OEX Recovery Group Incorporated. Our treasure is in safe hands; rescuing debris in distress is what this company does. They are associated with Canadian financial and mining outfits. Together they work to recover lost objects from Lake Ontario.
The rumour that there was something of such immense value drowned in the lake’s waters soon reached ears belonging to OEX. Upon hearing the intriguing story, they got straight to work picking a team to dig up the truth.
Immeasurable Treasure
This legend tells of objects so unique, so important, so valuable, that they had to be found as soon as possible. The Raise The Arrow mission was created with the sole purpose of bringing this dream to fruition.
It would be a discovery that would rock the world. OEX was eager to be at the spearhead of such an important project. Providing the funding and resources for the mission would ensure that their name became synonymous with that of the objects found.
Taking A Chance
The aim of the project was simple. The team would search the places on the lake’s bed where they were most likely to find something but it was a huge gamble. The objects might prove too hidden to discover or they might be too entrenched to bring up to the surface and worst of all, they might not even be there.
Due to all this, such projects cost huge amounts of money! Thankfully, in this instance, the funds were there, but the pressure on the team to deliver was staggering. OEX and its associated companies were betting with some long odds. Would they see their horse come home?
Diving Into The Unknown
It was a picturesque da! Around the team’s boat, the water was crystal clear, revealing a silent, otherworldly calm. Occasionally a silverfish would dart past them and break the spell.
The waters themselves seemed to be holding their breath as the boat chugged towards an unknown destiny. The team could only imagine what the claustrophobic depths might be clinging on to.
Keeping Secrets
This was a treasure that was so incredible that the company dared not advertise what it was they were after. They couldn’t get Canada’s hopes up, in case it all turned out to be a myth. They wouldn’t even tell the team what they were looking for.
The secrecy served to excite the team beyond measure. They knew that they were on the lookout for something that would have a huge potential impact on the world. But they couldn’t imagine what it could be.
Over 60 Years Ago…
So what’s the story? Well, We can tell you what our team knew as they kitted up for a deep dangerous dive. In 1950, some locals reported seeing something at the lake and as soon as they spotted it, the thing vanished.
We know, this probably caused you to have more questions than answers but that is exactly what the team felt. Over half a century had passed since the strange object or objects had been spotted. What could the residents around the lake possibly have seen?
A Strange Sighting
The strange occurrence was over in a flash, not giving them time to register what the objects could have been. The scene was a blur to everyone but the impact that it had was long-lasting.
Such an odd happening couldn’t be shaken off and the witnesses would replay the blurred image over and over again in the years that followed. It was an itch on their consciousness that they wanted to be scratched.
Telling Tales
And now their opportunity had come. The Raise The Arrow team had come to demystify the legend. The locals were eager to tell them their stories and describe the scene that they remembered so well.
The thing, whatever it was, was completely alien to the residents’ understanding. They couldn’t explain anything much more than its inherent strangeness. What anybody didn’t expect was that things were about to get even stranger!
On The Verge Of Adventure
The event had turned into somewhat of lore and the witnesses were happy to point out where the incident occurred. They took the team out to the lake’s edge and indicated an area around a mile out from the shore.
This was the site. At last, the team knew where to start their grand adventure. All the equipment was ready. They were intrepid explorers, pushing the boundaries of human knowledge. It was time to go.
Point Perre
The starting point was to be Point Petre, on the northeastern shores of Lake Ontario. Point Petre is in Prince Edward County in Canada’s Ontario province. It’s a pleasant area on a peninsula jutting out into the lake.
Point Petre is a wildlife conservation area. It has no urban areas nearby, but it’s a popular tourist attraction. The area boasts beautiful pebble beaches, limestone formations, and hidden rock cliffs.
Monster Or Myth?
Lakes attract legends. Take a large body of difficult to explore water and locals will populate it with all sorts of items and even characters. Take Loch Ness, for example. In the highlands of Scotland, Loch Ness is one of the deepest and murkiest lakes in the UK.
It is the home, many believe, of the Loch Ness Monster, affectionately called Nessie by residents. Is Nessie really there? Scientists have called it a hoax, but there have been an awful lot of sightings. Loch Ness is the largest body of water in the British Isles. There’s just no way that we can tell for sure!
Aliens In Ontario
Lake Ontario is no stranger to rumours. In 2013, there was another popular story doing the rounds. It told a tale of an alien base established under the lake’s surface. Maybe that could be the source of the strange disappearing objects?
The team didn’t think so. The idea of an alien base nestled among the weeds was certainly interesting, but in reality, unlikely. Unless you’re going to count octopi as aliens, Earth hasn’t yet been discovered by other-planetary beings.
A Great Lake
Why is Lake Ontario in particular shrouded in mystery? Well, It is one of the five Great Lakes of North America, with shores in both Canada and the US. Its name means ‘Lake Of Shining Waters’ in the Huron language.
It’s the smallest of the Great Lakes, although still the 13th largest lake in the world. At the end of the Great Lake chain, Lake Ontario is the lowest at 243 feet (ca. 74 m) above sea level.
Geography In Action
The lake was carved out by the Wisconsin ice sheet during the last ice age. At one point the lake was actually a bay on the Atlantic ocean. You can see dry beaches and banks up to 25 miles (ca. 40 km) from the current shores, tracing the changes to the lake over the millennia.
With the weight of the glaciers gone, the plates floating on the lava inside the globe are still bouncing back upwards. As the land rises out of the water, it tips a little, and inhabitants of the southern shores lose a bit of their land to the hungry ripples.
A Whole Lot Of Water
634 miles (ca. 1,020 km) of shoreline surround the waters of the lake. A further 78 miles (ca. 126 km) outline its many islands. At its deepest, it’s 133 fathoms to the bottom. Due to its depth, it never completely freezes in winter.
The lake is fed by 10 rivers, including the Niagara river, waters tumbling down from the famous waterfalls to the southeast. Those waters leave by the St Lawrence River, stretching northeast on its way to the Atlantic ocean.
Urban And Rural
Cities border the shores of Lake Ontario, most notably Toronto on the Canadian side, and Rochester on the US side. But much of the lake is home to large wetlands, which support a varied ensemble of plant and animal species.
Sadly, the once wildlife haven has been destroyed due to pollution and deforestation, which have depleted many of the species native to the area. Nowadays the wetlands and forests surrounding the lake are protected areas.
The ThunderFish
Lake Ontario’s shores are thousands of years old. They contain nearly 400 cubic miles of dark, secretive water. They stretch across the border of two great nations. The task before the team was of Biblical proportions. But they had help.
Meet ThunderFish! This cute little craft is an automatic underwater vehicle, a mini-submarine. It’s pretty much a drone that swims instead of flies. Its camera is a sonar device that can take high-resolution images of the environment surrounding it.
The Yellow Submarine
No-one is living in this yellow submarine, though. The team remained on dry land whilst piloting it around the designated area of the lake bed. And the ThunderFish delivered. It sent wonderful images back to its gloating masters. What did it see?
All stories were put to the side now. There would be no made-up monsters, no alien invasions. They didn’t know what they were looking for, but there could be no doubt that the sonar images in front of them showed something.
Getting The Picture
What was it appearing on the screens before them? What could the nifty little probe be looking at, fathoms below them? The team craned forward over the images, trying to make some sense from them.
As if they were squinting just right at a 3D picture, suddenly the shapes fell into place for the team and it was not what anyone was expecting. It was an aircraft! But it wasn’t just any old aircraft. This one was special.
A Blast From The Past
How special? We hear you ask. Well, let’s do a bit of time travelling, and see if we can spot the aircraft new and shiny, and not yet wet. Let’s peer in the windows of a hangar, somewhere in Canada, owned by the government, in 1946.
The second World War had just ended, but tensions between the Eastern and Western Blocs were high. Each side was looking for an edge over the other. The Canadian government was pinning its hopes on a new jet fighter with serious destructive capabilities.
The Cold War
The Cold War was beginning. Both sides were eager to gain a military advantage over the other in the event of a large-scale battle. The war ended in 1991 without such an encounter ever happening, thus earning its title, the ‘Cold’ War.
For over 40 years the threat of invasion hung over the world. On one side, the Western Bloc, generally democratic, headed by the US. On the other, the Eastern Bloc, communist, headed by the USSR. The emerging third world countries tried desperately to stay neutral.
The Nuclear Threat
Both East and West possessed the power to annihilate vast areas of land with one atomic bomb. No-one really wanted this to happen, and it was the threat from both sides that kept the other from attacking.
Nevertheless, the only way to feel safe was with good old fashioned firepower. The Soviets started building aircraft that could carry their weapons over the Arctic to the US and Canada.
The Clunk
Canada saw the Soviet activity and raised it one Canadian company; A. V. Roe Canada Limited. Now known as Avro Canada, these were the engineers assigned to creating aircraft that could beat back the Russian threat.
And they delivered on that promise. In 1953, the Avro CF-100 Canuck was born. It was christened the Clunk and it remained on active service in the Canadian military until the 1980s.
One Step Ahead
In 1952, as they were developing old Clunk, the Royal Canadian Air Force received new intelligence. The Russians were upping the stakes once more. They were developing another aircraft.
It was rumoured to be a high-tech, high-speed, high-destruction animal that could wipe out the Canadian nation. But it would take the Soviets seven years to perfect it, that meant that Canada had some time and she put it to good use.
The Avro Arrow
In 1953 the Clunk set out on her launch flight. Whilst people of note were saluting her, shadowy heads were already down, studying blueprints for her successor. The RCAF had already formulated a report in 1952, detailing how they could improve the Canuck.
It was called ‘RCAF’s Final Report of the All-Weather Interceptor Requirements Team’. All-weather interceptor didn’t exactly roll off the tongue, though, so A. V. Roe Canada called it the Avro Arrow.
Built For Speed
She was everything that the name invoked. The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow was a supersonic interceptor. With its delta wings, it looked like a spearhead, and it flew as one, true and deadly.
The main specification improvements were in strength and speed. This baby could reach heights above 50,000 feet (ca. 15 km). She could fly at Mach 2 speeds. Mach 2 sounds pretty impressive, and when you think that it’s equal to 1500mph (ca. 2,414 km/h) you can see why!
Testing The Theory
Now back in the day, there were no computer simulation models to test theories with. No, engineers in those days had to make model prototypes. Before testing with these prototypes, it was impossible to know whether the theories would hold together in the air.
Between 1953 and 1957, nine prototypes of the Avro Arrow were constructed. They were perfect imitations of the hoped-for real thing, except that they were made to a smaller scale.
Breaking The Barrier
The Arrow was named for its distinctive delta wing design. Today, of course, we have seen delta wings on many aircraft, large and small. But back then, it was an innovative new concept. And it did a special job.
The barrier that aircraft engineers had long struggled to overcome was that of sound. The secret turned out to be in the wing shape. Delta wings create wave drag, which creates an awful lot of complicated vortexes and forces that enable the plane to fly faster than the speed of sound.
Chasing Perfection
These cute little aircraft turned out to really pack a punch. They reached Mach 1.7 before the glassy waters of lake claimed their prize. The engineers had the information that they needed to move the design to the next stage.
Surprisingly little needed to be tweaked, based on the prototypes’ flight data. The wings were drooped and given a camber. A dog-tooth was introduced. The newly-published area rule principle was applied, leading to changes such as a sharper nose and the addition of a tail cone.
Along Came Sputnik
The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow was rolled out in October 1957. The plane bore the mark RL-201. It was to be a grand occasion, marking a turnaround in Canadian defences. 13,000 guests were invited to the prestigious occasion.
But the Soviet Union, not to be outdone, defeated the Arrow before it even got off the ground. They launched Sputnik, the world’s first artificial Earth satellite. This was far more exciting than a mere plane!
A New Threat
The Arrow was a well-designed aircraft, innovative and daring. It pushed the boundaries of flight as we then knew it. But, it was in the wrong place at the wrong time. With one move, the USSR had changed the Western world’s priorities.
Political change heralded the demise of the Arrow. The government changed hands and new treaties were signed with the US. Most importantly, the arrival of Sputnik on the scene meant that there was now a threat from even higher up.
Fallen Arrows
The country could not afford defensive systems against both manned bombers and possible ballistic attacks from space. This meant that Canada would have to make a choice and it wasn’t good news for The Arrows.
They went down fighting, with various government and military officials reluctant to cancel the scheme. But in the end, ballistic missiles were deemed to be the greater threat. Canada installed the Bomarc system and the Arrow program was cancelled in 1959.
Destroying the Evidence
The cancellation of the program resulted in nearly 50,000 people put out of work, overnight. On top that, all the planes, their parts, equipment, and data were destroyed to protect the government.
The Canadian Mounted Police suspected a Soviet mole in A. V. Coe Canada and wanted all evidence disposed of. But they had forgotten about the nine prototypes buried in the bed of Lake Ontario.
The Missing Pieces
“The government destroyed all the drawings, models and burned everything so it wasn’t replicated,” David Shea, senior engineer, told the National Post. “These models, at the bottom of Lake Ontario, are the only intact pieces of that whole program.”
David works for Kraken Sonar, one of the companies that provide equipment for the project known as Raise The Arrow, organized by OEX Recovery Group Incorporated. As you can assume from their name, they have one very specific mission.
Magic Number Nine
It was Kraken Sonar, himself who gave the team their ThunderFish to capture images for the project. It was this submarine drone that took the first fateful pictures of the prototypes.
“Back in the 1950s, there was no computer modelling to see how they’d fly, so the designers had to use a physical model,” Karl Kenny, also from Kraken Sonar, added. “Then, it went back to the engineers for fine-tuning. The ninth model is the Holy Grail. They had it perfected.”
Exploring For Canada
John Burzynski is the president, CEO, and director of Osisko Mining, another company involved with the Raise The Arrow project. He is excited about the prospect of bringing these unique aircraft back to the surface.
“As professional explorers in the mining business, we initiated this program about a year ago with the idea of bringing back a piece of lost Canadian history to the Canadian public,” he confirmed in the same interview.
A Needle In A Haystack
“People ask, ‘Well, do you think you are going to find them?’” David Shea, Kraken’s vice-president of engineering, told The Globe and Mail. “The problem isn’t the technology. The problem is making sure you are looking in the right place.”
The area off the shores of Point Petre seemed like a sensible place to start. After all, that’s where the prototypes were launched all those years ago. This common-sense answer was bringing them quite good luck!
Eyewitness Account
Jack Hurst is one of the few remaining witnesses prepared to help find the elusive aircraft. He was there, over six decades ago, when they were launched. He saw the object that was there and then gone.
“I would guess that [the models] went a few thousand feet in the air and I don’t think they would be much more than a mile out,” he declared. It was his direction that decided where the Raise The Arrow team would start looking.
A Confident Start
According to Burzynski, due to their pinpointed location, the team was confident that they would find something very early in their search. “We’re starting with the high-probability areas,” he told CBC TV.
They had done their research well. “You won’t have to wait for weeks and months. This will be within days,” he insisted. The media was stunned at how fast they found what they were looking for.
The Twelfth Day
Twelve days of hard work later, Burzynski was back. “Well, we found one,” he exclaimed excitedly. It was late July when the team got their proof that the aircraft was indeed under the lake.
But the prototypes were destined to spend a few more months in their quiet resting place before they could be raised. The world could not get their first glimpse of the amazing artefacts until 2018.
Amazing Canadians…
History was nonetheless coming to life in front of us. The prospect of raising the Arrows was super exciting. David Shea was as enthusiastic about the discovery as his colleague, Burzynski.
“I think being able to showcase using cutting-edge Canadian technology — being our sonar systems and underwater vehicles — to actually find and resurrect cutting edge Canadian technology… I think it’s an amazing example of what we can do as Canadians looking back at our history.”
One More To Go…
The delay in bringing the prototypes back to light was quite a bummer, especially since the team hadn’t found all nine of the aircraft. Of course, they were determined to get the whole set.
The prototype that was missing was the ninth to be made. It was the most advanced, the most like the eventual aircraft proper would be. It had to be there. The team just needed more time.
Secrets Revealed
It hadn’t taken long to find the first eight prototypes. This was huge news. The aircraft is a part of Canadian history. Only 6 of the finished craft were made, and all destroyed. Being able to see the trailblazing aircraft would be amazing.
“The delta wing was a relatively new concept at that point, so it required a lot of testing to determine whether it would perform well, particularly at supersonic speeds,” said Erin Gregory from the Canada Aviation & Space Museum.
Determination – And Success!
Their expedition was finally coming to a close. A year flew by, most of it full of excitement, disbelief, struggle, and plain hard work, the team celebrated at last. They had achieved what they had set their minds too!
“We are pleased to announce that the first historic relic of the Avro Arrow free-flight program has been recovered,” their Facebook page proclaimed. “It was delivered back to land at CFB Trenton on August 13, 2018, after resting on the bed of Lake Ontario for over 64 years.”