The Canadians were interested in it, and took up responsibility for development. I would imagine that, given the technology of the time, it was several steps too far. Its demise probably contributed to the death of the CF-105 Arrow.
Not only did the Canadians lurred themselves with an unworkable
missile; they ignored the Skylancer radar tailored for the Sparrow II (the APQ-64) and instead started a brand new sophisticated radar with RCA lacking experience, from scratch.
Only to screw the whole thing 2 years down the road (summer 1956 - summer 1958) and replace it with Avro original proposal "use the F-106 radar and missiles, you dummy" - that was the plan
a) before 1956
b) after september 1958, too late
Fundamentally, the Arrow symbolize the exact moment when
radars and
missiles become the lion share of combat aircraft developments costs: far ahead of
ENGINES and
AIRFRAME -two areas were the Arrow development went pretty well considering the complexity of the whole thing.
Had the Canadians stuck with the F-106 radar and missiles all the way from 1954 to 1960, the program may have survived.
Alternately, had they picked the (unworklable) Sparrow II but the (workable) Westinghouse APQ-64, they could have switched to
Sparrow III and
APQ-72 by 1958 or 1960.
Wait, that sounds familiar ?
Phantom F-4B, anybody ?
What is even more puzzling is, the APQ for the Phantom got his antenna grown from 24-inch on the Skyray to 32-inch for the F-4. The Arrow needed a 40-inch antenna, so, what ? Add 8 more inches to the goddam APQ-72, and job done. Now the Arrow radar and missiles are those of the Phantom... and its 5200 airframes, 20 years production run (1959-1979). IF that doesn't help the Arrow surviving for at least 66 airframes in place of OTL CF-101s, then I'm ready to swallow my hat...
Westinghouse APQ-50: Skyray, no Sparrow, 24 inch antenna
Westinghouse APQ-64: Skylancer, Sparrow II, 24 inch antenna
Westinghouse APQ-72: Phantom, Sparrow III, 32 inch antenna.
Would have made some sense to create something like
Westinghouse APQ-74: CF-105, Sparrow III, 40 inch antenna.
Even more since a Canadian Westinghouse existed ! Take an APQ- licence and bid against RCA in 1955-56... and I've found a small bit on Google books, saying they DID that, but LOST to RCA (facepalm).
Back to Super Tiger (which was considered by the RCAF as one of the best options to replace the Sabres in 1958-59, but Lockheed carried the day).