Did anyone know that the Soviet Mig of the late 50s/early 60s was actually based on a Canadian design for its Arrow, which was scrapped while still in prototype? Sure enough, while watching a show on “secret weapons” on the History channel last night I saw that that’s what happened. Apparently the Canadian PM scrapped plans to pursue the Arrow, which was apparently a pretty darn good jet, when he decided instead to grant more money to Canadian farmers (I think there was some concern that American defense contractor influence had something to do with this as well).

Anyway, the prototypes were destroyed, as were the tools used to make the prototypes. It was recently revealed that this occurred because the Arrow plant was infiltrated by the KGB, which allowed the Soviets to base their Mig on this design. Interesting stuff of a bygone era.