Table of Contents

1 An Air-Minded Middle Power

2 Planning for Peace

3 International and Industrial Alliances

4 Caught Flat-Footed

5 Facing the Threat in Earnest

6 And So to War

7 Juggling Numbers

8 Putting Rubber on the Ramp

9 Growing Needs, Growing Concerns

10 Fact and Fancy

Appendix A: Royal Canadian Air Force Headquarters Organization Chart, c. 1947

Appendix B: Department of Defence Production Aircraft Delivery Statistics, 1951-54

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Promotional Information

An illuminating account of the complexities of aircraft procurement in the early years of the Cold War before the ill-fated Arrow project.

About the Author

Colonel (ret’d) Randall Wakelam teaches military history and leadership at the Royal Military College of Canada and is author of The Science of Bombing: Operational Research in RAF Bomber Command. A pilot in his service career, he also worked in aircraft procurement.

Reviews

Very readable and well-researched…Wakelam has made an important contribution to the historiography of the Canadian aircraft industry and the institutional history of the RCAF. By providing the context, analysis, and research strength that was lacking in previous non-scholarly publications on Canadian air force procurement, Cold War Fighters succeeds in bridging the gap between academic and popular history.
*Canadian Military History*

Cold War Fighters confronts the reality of a nation that aspired to great technological advancements in the air and how it dealt with its limitations rooted in the lack of experience designing and producing advanced military platforms. Wakelam is able to properly instill feelings in the reader that range from enthusiasm at Canada’s successes and frustration caused by the industrial failures that hindered the potential to become a world renowned producer of jet aircraft.
*Left History Journal, Issue 16.2*

Wakelam uses his previous experience in the Air Force and within the aircraft procurement environment to contextualize the archival material he has unearthed to render an exceptional examination of aircraft procurement that is as relevant today as during the 1950s.
*RCAF Journal, Winter 2013, Vol. 2, Issue 1*