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Dedicated to the people and projects of AVRO Canada & Orenda Engines Limited
So far very little information has been published on CSI, the only related information I have found is from Sifco, please visit their site for additional information http://www.sifco.com/bookhtml/bookc8p3.htm
If you have any information on CSI please contact me.
CANADIAN STEEL IMPROVEMENT LTD
In the late 1940s, the Canadian government decided to develop an aircraft industry tailored to the unique conditions confronting that nation. When the Korean War broke out in 1950, the Defense Production Ministry took bids to establish a turbine and compressor blade production forge plant. Steel Improvement was the successful bidder and in early 1951 broke ground for Canadian Steel Improvement, Ltd., in Etobicoke, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto. Steel Improvement invested the necessary technical and management expertise to operate the company. The facility, designed by Steel Improvement, was built at the expense of the Canadian government and then leased to Steel Improvement. In its first year, the plant produced more than a million precision forged turbine and compressor blades for A. V. Roe's Orenda engine. The Avro Canada CF100 was powered by an Orenda engine.
The plant remained in operation until 1954, when the Canadian government decided to sell the plant, but Steel Improvement declined to purchase since they were interested in Champion Forge, a facility in Cleveland which had some of the biggest forging hammers in the country. This decision proved wise, since shortly after selling Canadian Steel Improvement to a British firm, the Canadian government shut down the entire Canadian fighter program.
From what the AvroLand records indicate, Avro Canada decided to add CSI to their group of companies in 1954, which was inline with their way of doing business of keeping control over source material needed for their projects. A visitor to AvroLand has informed us that the company was still in business in 1964 after the Avro Canada name stopped being used. Does anyone know when Hawker Siddeley Canada sold off CSI or shut it down? If you have additional details about CSI or other Avro Canada owned companies please contact us.