The Avro Canada C102 Jetliner was a Canadian prototype medium-range turbojet-powered jet airliner built by Avro Canada in 1949. It was beaten to the air by only 13 days by the de Havilland Comet, thereby becoming the second jet airliner in the world. The name "Jetliner" was chosen as a shortening of the term "jet airliner", a term which is still in popular usage. The aircraft was considered suitable for busy routes along the US eastern seaboard and garnered intense interest, notably from Howard Hughes who even offered to start production under license. However, continued delays in Avro Canada's all-weather interceptor project, the CF-100 Canuck, led to an order to stop working on the project in 1951, with the prototype Jetliner later cut up for scrap. Design and development Genesis In 1945 Trans-Canada Airlines (TCA) started exploring a number of aircraft developments under the direction of Jim Bain, at that time superintendent of engineering and maintenance. Avro of England, which had recently taken over the Victory Aircraft "shadow factory" in Toronto, jointly with TCA, came up with a layout for an aircraft powered by four Armstrong-Siddeley turboprop engines later known as the Armstrong Siddeley Mamba. This Mamba engine arrangement was used about the same time for the unsuccessful British Armstrong Whitworth Apollo airliner. In the fall of 1945, Bain travelled to England to visit various aircraft companies and Rolls-Royce, where Ernest Hives, head of the Rolls-Royce Aero Engine, convinced him the AJ65, a new axial-flow turbojet engine later called the Avon, was the right engine for his new aircraft. On his return to Canada Bain insisted a twin-engined aircraft powered by these engines was the only arrangement acceptable to TCA. Over the next few months, the teams at TCA and Avro refined the requirements, which were signed off on 9 April 1946. They called for a 36-seat aircraft with a cruising speed of , a range of , an average distance between stops of and a longest single flight of . The difference between the range and maximum airport distances was to allow for the required 45 minutes stacking and diversion to a 120-mile (190-km)-distant alternate airport in a headwind. The aircraft also needed to be able to operate from existing runways. Load was 12,700 lbs and 50 passengers. The agreement also specified a number of contractual terms that, in retrospect, appear especially odd. In spite of TCA's experience with