Haley Industries is a Canadian company which manufactures lightweight metal castings for use in aerospace applications. It was a prime contributor to the Avro Arrow aircraft project.

Origins

Haley Industries (originally known as Light Alloys Limited) was founded in 1952 in Haley, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

 (approximately 100 km west of Canada's capital city Ottawa

Ottawa

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

). It was set up with the support of the Canadian government in order to contribute to the development of Canada's fledgling aerospace industry. The site chosen was close to the Dominion Magnesium smelter, a producer of magnesium

Magnesium

Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg, atomic number 12, and common oxidation number +2. It is an alkaline earth metal and the eighth most abundant element in the Earth's crust and ninth in the known universe as a whole...

 metal using the Pidgeon process

Pidgeon process

The Pidgeon process is one of the methods of magnesium metal production, via a silicothermic reduction. Practical production requires roughly 35-40 MWh/ton of metal produced, which is on par with the molten salt electrolytic methods of production, though above the 7 MWh/ton theoretical...

 which was pioneered there.

Involvement with the Avro Arrow

In 1953 Canada decided to design and build a supersonic

Supersonic

Supersonic speed is a rate of travel of an object that exceeds the speed of sound . For objects traveling in dry air of a temperature of 20 °C this speed is approximately 343 m/s, 1,125 ft/s, 768 mph or 1,235 km/h. Speeds greater than five times the speed of sound are often...

 interceptor aircraft

Interceptor aircraft

An interceptor aircraft is a type of fighter aircraft designed specifically to prevent missions of enemy aircraft, particularly bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. Interceptors generally rely on high speed and powerful armament in order to complete their mission as quickly as possible and set up...

 to be known as the Avro (CF-105) Arrow

CF-105 Arrow

The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow was a delta-winged interceptor aircraft, designed and built by Avro Aircraft Limited in Malton, Ontario, Canada, as the culmination of a design study that began in 1953...

. The aircraft was to be built by Avro Canada

Avro Canada

Commonly known as Avro Canada, this company started in 1945 as an aircraft plant and became within thirteen years the third-largest company in Canada, one of the largest 100 companies in the world, and directly employing over 50,000...

 and to achieve speeds up to Mach

Mach number

Mach number is the speed of an object moving through air, or any other fluid substance, divided by the speed of sound as it is in that substance for its particular physical conditions, including those of temperature and pressure...

 2. In order to achieve this, use was to be made of magnesium and titanium

Titanium

Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. It has a low density and is a strong, lustrous, corrosion-resistant transition metal with a silver color....

 metals to save weight. The aircraft first flew in 1958, but delays, rising costs and a change of government led to the programme's cancellation in 1959.

Subsequent history

The 10 years following the cancellation of the Arrow were difficult, and the company had to diversify into the commercial market. It was privatized in 1967, and in 1981, it was listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange

Toronto Stock Exchange

Toronto Stock Exchange is the largest stock exchange in Canada, the third largest in North America and the seventh largest in the world by market capitalisation. Based in Canada's largest city, Toronto, it is owned by and operated as a subsidiary of the TMX Group for the trading of senior equities...

. In 1984 it purchased the Presto Casting Company of Phoenix, Arizona

Phoenix, Arizona

Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...

. Haley and Presto are now owned by the Magellan Aerospace

Magellan Aerospace

Magellan Aerospace Corporation is a Canadian manufacturer of aerospace systems and components. Magellan also repairs and overhauls, tests, and provides aftermarket support services for engines, and engine structural components. The company's business units are divided into the product areas of...

 Corporation, and continue to make lightweight castings for air, space and specialized engineering applications. The company employs 391 full and part time employees.

In 2004, the company was named as one of Ontario's three worst water polluters

Water pollution

Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies . Water pollution occurs when pollutants are discharged directly or indirectly into water bodies without adequate treatment to remove harmful compounds....

 by the Sierra Legal Defence Fund. Their report was based on violations occurring in 2001, when Haley recorded 82 water pollution violations.