Originally Posted by
Skylion
Had the Argonaut purchase been blocked on foreign exchange grounds
The whole Argonaut programme was done for foreign exchange reasons anyway. Canada was happy to be paid in Sterling, and the Canadian content of the BOAC fleet (airframe) was balanced by the UK content of the Trans-Canada/Canadian Pacific/RCAF Argonauts (engines and many ancillaries). Douglas got some benefit as well by selling Canadair the DC-4 airframe tooling when production of this was ending in favour of the DC-6.