ENGINE COLLECTION

The Avro Canada TR-5 Orenda was the first production jet engine from Avro Canada‘s Gas Turbine Division.  Similar to other early jet engines in design (like the Rolls-Royce Avon or General Electric J47) a total of 4,000 Orendas of various marks were delivered during the 1950’s.

The Orenda design started in 1946 when the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) placed an order with Avro Canada for a new night/all-weather fighter.  To power this design, Avro decided to build their own engines through, recently acquired Turbo Research, a former crown corporation set up in Leaside, Toronto.

Turbo Research was in the midst of designing their first engine, the 3,000 lbf (13 kN) TR-4 Chinook, which could easily be scaled up for the new fighter design.  As work on the Chinook continued, Avro’s newly christened Gas Turbine Division started work on the larger 6,000 lbf (27 kN) thrust design needed for the RCAF contract.  Upon design completion in January 1948, the resulting TR-5 was named “Orenda” (an Iroquois word meaning “Tribal Soul on the Right Path”).

Flight testing started with a converted Avro Lancaster, FM209, one of the many Mk.10’s built at the Victory Aircraft (now Avro) plant during the war.  The two outboard Merlin engines were replaced with the Orendas, and the new aircraft took to the sky on 10 July.  Avro test pilots flight flew the aircraft across Lake Ontario to the Buffalo, New York area, where they were able to easily outperform the P-47 Thunderbolts of the Air National Guard that were sent to investigate.  The aircraft ran up 500 hours by July 1954 and when this portion of flight testing ended, it was destroyed in a hangar fire on 24 July 1956.

The Orenda 2 was the first production model and, even before being qualified, the engine had been fitted to the Avro CF-100 and flown on 20 June 1952, with a squadron of pre-production Mk.2 aircraft scheduled to enter RCAF service in October.  

The first real production model was the Orenda 8, which was the powerplant of the CF-100 Mk.3.  This model was first flown in September 1952.  This was soon followed by the Orenda 9 powered Mk.4 that flew in October 1952, and then by the rocket-armed Mk.4A with the 7,400 lbf (33 kN) Orenda 11.

While work on the CF-100 continued, the RCAF also started looking at a new day fighter, eventually selecting the Sabre.  A single Sabre 3 was built with the Orenda 4 engine, with performance levels similar to that of the US models.  Production then turned to the Sabre 5 with the Orenda 10, and then to the Sabre 6 with the (7,500 lbf (33 kN) thrust) Orenda 14.  The resulting Sabre was both lighter and more powerful than its J47 powered counterparts and went on to set a several air speed records.  Most notable among these was Jacqueline Cochran‘s supersonic flight in the sole Sabre 3, which Canadair loaned to her for the effort.  

Canadair built 1,815 Sabres in total, 937 of these equipped with Orendas.  Several examples, notably one at Boeing, serving into the 1970s.  The engine was so successful that the Gas Turbine Division was renamed Orenda Engines when Hawker Siddeley reorganized their Canadian operations in 1955.