Edwin Alliott Verdon Roe was born in this year on April 26 in Patricroft, Lancashire, England.

Edwin Alliott Verdon Roe quits school at the age of 14 and leaves England for British Columbia, Canada.

A.V. Roe patents the first aircraft control column.

World War I occurs. A.V. Roe produces the Avro 504 aircraft.

A.V. Roe was Knighted in the New Years Honours list.

World War II

Avro Aircraft Limited was created, a member of A.V. Roe Canada, Ltd. and the Hawker Siddeley Group when A.V. Roe and Co. Ltd. acquire Victory Aircraft Ltd. in Malton, Ontario. Victory had built 3,643 Avro aircraft comprising of 3,197 Ansons, 430 Lancasters and 6 Lincolns and a single York. The XC-100 All-weather fighter project was announced.

In May, A.V. Roe Canada purchased Turbo Research ltd. and renamed the company to Gas Turbine Division, later known as Orenda Engines, Ltd. is the only part of Avro Canada still operating under its original name. Today Orenda Reciprocating Engines, a member of the Magellan Aerospace Company, continues to create engines.

Avro Canada builds and flies their first aircraft under the new company name, the XC-102 the first passenger jet in North America (13 days behind the Comet) and names it The Jetliner for Trans Canada Airlines (Air Canada). Howard Hughes borrowed it for some time and was impressed enough to ask about buying a license to manufacture them in the U.S. for his airline, TWA. The United States Air Force was interested in procuring 20 Jetliners. Other offers were in the works. A great success seemed certain.

The Jetliner reached 39,800 feet and exceeded 500 mph in level flight. The CF-100 takes flight on January 19.

The R.C.A.F. Air Staff issued a specification (Air 7-3) in May. Work on the Iroquois Engine, designated PS-13 begins.

Trans Canada Airlines, having previously backed out of their association with the Jetliner, ordered 51 Viscount turboprop aircraft from Vickers-Armstrong limited in England. These were the first turbine powered aircraft in regular service in North America. They continued in service until 1969. The French Caravelle was also a huge success in the late fifties and through the sixties... with specifications similar to the much earlier Jetliner.

The Jetliner was ordered to be destroyed by the Canadian Government. The nose section of the Jetliner was given to the National Aviation Museum in Ottawa on December 13.

The first test flight of the Iroquois (PS-13) occurs in November on a loaned U.S.A.F. B-47 Stratojet, after a Candian flight crew were certified to fly it.

Nothing happened this year... someone got a raise at Avro Canada.

On February 20, newly elected Prime Minister John Diefenbaker announced to Parliment that he had cancelled the entire Arrow program. Before noon, Fred Smye was called by the DOD Production and informed that the Arrow and Iroquois engine contracts were cancelled and the companies must cease all work on the projects. At 4:00pm it was announced that the entire workforce was to be layed off until something was sorted out. This day is known as 'Black Friday'. After 14% of Avro's force returns to work the following week to finish projects, they deliver the Avrocar VZ-9AV (VZ for Verticle Take-off, 9 as it was the ninth in a series built and AV for Avro) to the U.S.A.F. and sent to NASA's Ames, Moffett field in California where it flew on May 17, 1961.

British Aircraft Corporation formed from merger of Bristol, English Electric, Hunting and Vickers. Armstrong Whitworth, Avro and Hawker, already in Hawker Siddeley, were joined by Blackburn, De Havilland and Folland.

In October, Orenda Engines Division or Hawker-Siddeley Canada, Ltd. (ex-Avro Canada) has been awarded a contract worth $18,751,325 (CAD) to produce General Electric J85-CAN-40 turbojet engines for the R.C.A.F.'s CF-114 program. The CT-114 is the Air Force's designation for the Canadair CL-41 Teuban trainer. J85-CAN-40 is the new designation for the Canadian produced engines based on the CJ610-1B.

In April, British Aerospace (BAe) formed as a nationalised corporation by the merger of British Aircraft Corporation, Hawker Siddeley Aviation, Hawker Siddeley Dynamics and Scottish Aviation.

In February, Three new wholly-owned companies, formed to replace British Aerospace (Commercial Aircraft) Ltd; British Aerospace Airbus Limited, British Aerospace Regional Aircraft Limited and British Aerospace Corporate Jets Limited.