Aircraft industries throughout Europe and North America were faced with the sudden cancellation of contracts signed for war equipment and supplies. In England, Hawker Siddeley’s top brass started to wonder aloud if the contract with the Canadian government for the rental-purchase of Victory Aircraft was now a shrewd business move. Prospects looked very bleak to say the least.
In Canada, an industry that boasted a work force of more than 80,000 strong at the start of the year was now less than one-tenth its original strength.
Faced with a rapidly disappearing customer base, Fred Smye and Sir Roy Dobson arranged a meeting with C.D. Howe with a view to dissolving the deal.
According to articles published years later in company newsletters, then A.V. Roe Canada president Fred Smye was quoted as saying that Sir Roy Dobson was considered crazy to persist. “ The really amazing thing is that here is a man at the peak of his career, riding the crest, with everything to lose, and he was willing to gamble it all on his belief in this country’s future. All he worried about was how much of the Victory plant we could handle,” said Fred Smye.
Finally, after numerous meetings, an agreement was reached. A.V. Roe Canada Limited was established on December 1, 1945 and assumed control of Victory Aircraft. At first, the new company acquired a portion of the office building and one bay in the plant. Following a meeting with C.D. Howe, A.V. Roe Canada took over the entire facility. The government–owned Turbo Research Limited was acquired by A.V. Roe Canada soon after that and, in 1946, its staff became part of A.V. Roe Canada. Later, the name Turbo Research Limited was changed to Orenda.
The new management took control in what some described as a ghost-town atmosphere. At one time more than 9,000 employees were working night and day for the war effort and the entire facility was patrolled with armed guards. Now it looked as if time stood still. Machines and the tools of those who operated them lay exactly where they had been left the day the end of the war was announced.
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