Disposition
In a last-ditch effort to generate some interest in its new fighter, Can-Car entered the Model 10 in the January 1940 New York-to-Miami air race. Shortly after takeoff, a lack of oil pressure forced the FDB-1 to land in New Jersey, thereby disqualifying it. Two months later, during testing, its landing gear collapsed at Saint-Hubert. Although Mexican authorities were interested in the aircraft, the Canadian government refused an export license and there were no other prospective customers for a biplane fighter in an age of monoplanes.
In a fit of pique, Gregor was quoted as saying: "They'll start this war with monoplanes, but they'll finish it with biplanes." He was wrong. Neither his prediction nor his aircraft were to survive the test of time. After several years of sitting forlornly in storage, the Model 10 FDB-1 was destroyed in a hangar fire at Montreal's Cartierville Airport, and Michael Gregor swiftly followed it into obscurity.
Read more about this topic: Canadian Car And Foundry FDB-1
Famous quotes containing the word disposition:
“That good disposition which boasts of being most tender is often stifled by the least urging of self-interest.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites; in proportion as their love to justice is above their rapacity; in proportion as their soundness and sobriety of understanding is above their vanity and presumption; in proportion as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good, in preference to the flattery of knaves.”
—Edmund Burke (1729–1797)
“It is an immense misfortune to the empire to have a king of such a disposition at such a time. We are told and every thing proves it true that he is the bitterest enemy we have.... To undo his empire he has but one truth more to learn, that after colonies have drawn the sword there is but one step more they can take.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)