• Reading age: 11 to 18

"These dedicated men and women gave blood, sweat, and tears as their contribution - And now, it really happened, our beloved bird was in the air." - Ray Boone, A.V. Roe Canada employee. In the 1950s, A. V. Roe Canada was at the forefront of aviation development worldwide. After building one of the first jet airliners and completing production of Canada's first jet fighter, the company was poised to launch its most revolutionary design - the Avro Arrow. Despite the efforts of courageous test pilots and some of the world's best designers, engineers, and technicians, the dream was shattered.

Bill Zuk is an aviation historian and author whose interest in the Avro Arrow dates back to a time when he was an Air Cadet. He is an active member of the Canadian Aviation Historical Society and the Western Canada Aviation Museum. Currently a teacher-librarian in Pembina Trails School Division in Winnipeg, he also works as the training coordinator for the aviation industry in Manitoba. His writing career began in 1997 when he was involved in the Arrow mini-series. He is the author of Avrocar: Canada's Flying Saucer and Janusz Zurakowski: Legend in the Skies. He also worked on the documentary "Avrocar: Saucer Secrets from the Past", which was based on his book. He was able to fulfill an improbable dream of actually building a flying saucer, albeit, a movie version. In 2003, he served as the curator of a travelling exhibition, The Avro Arrow: A Dream is Denied and directed two film documentaries, "Bearing His Soul" and "Zero Over the Prairies", for CTV and PBS.

Bill Zuk's profile page