Free Flight Model Found On The Bottom Of Lake Ontario

Kraken Sonar, a marine technology company dedicated to the production and sale of software-centric sensors and underwater robotic systems, is very pleased to announce that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Kraken Sonar Systems Inc., working with the program organizers OEX Recovery Group, has discovered a free-flight Avro Arrow model on the floor of Lake Ontario.

The sonar images were captured using Kraken's AquaPix Synthetic Aperture Sonar deployed onboard Kraken's ThunderFish Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). OEX Recovery Group, the organizers of the program, are unveiling the images to media and project supporters in Toronto last week. The sonar and underwater camera images showcase a free-flight Avro Arrow model that was launched over Lake Ontario in the 1950s as part of the Avro Arrow design test program.

"It has been a very exciting few weeks. After a short break to conduct vehicle maintenance and refresh our team, last week we headed back out onto the lake," said David Shea, Kraken's VP of Engineering. "The plan was to follow the trajectory of our recently discovered Nike booster rockets and we prioritized our search grid to focus along the same trajectory. The group decided to conduct a search immediately beyond the location of our previous booster rocket. We had a very productive survey day and were rewarded with a fantastic discovery -- an Avro Arrow model and two more Nike boosters."

Shea continued, "As all of our sonar processing operates onboard the AUV in real-time, this significantly reduced our overall processing timeline, a critical factor during the search. We could access and view the sonar images immediately after we downloaded the data. The extremely high resolution of our AquaPix sonar made target identification very easy -- this was clearly a delta-wing shaped model. It was previously confirmed from historical footage that each model was launched with a Nike booster rocket, and although the models did decouple from the rockets for free flight, following the 'trail' of booster rockets led us in the right direction. This discovery clearly validates the group's search strategy and demonstrates the value of Kraken's ThunderFish AUV and AquaPix sonar technology."

"We are very pleased and tremendously proud to announce we have discovered the first example of one of the free-flight Arrow models," said John Burzynski, Raise the Arrow expedition leader and CEO of Osisko Mining. "We hope to have other discoveries as we continue the program and are now working on planning a recovery of this first Arrow model. The Arrow is an important -- and passionate -- part of Canada's aviation and technological history as a reminder of what Canadians can achieve. We are honoured to be part of this discovery, and would like to thank our sponsors, project participants and supporters for their efforts in making it possible."

"We are thrilled and honoured that our technology, products and people played a key role in the discovery of an Avro Arrow free flight model," said Karl Kenny, Kraken's President and CEO. "Our advanced Canadian ocean technology plays a big part in this story, as our underwater sensors and robotics helped find a piece of Canada's aviation history. Continuing in the tradition of the Arrow, the entire Kraken team is proud to engineer and deliver world-class marine technology."

Any of the free-flight test models that are eventually recovered will be housed at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa and the National Air Force Museum of Canada in Trenton, Ontario.

(Images provided with Kraken Sonar news release)

FMI: www.krakensonar.com