The Orenda design started in the summer of 1946 when the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) placed an order with Avro Canada for a new night/all-weather fighter.

Avro had recently purchased Turbo Research, a former crown corporation set up in Leaside, Toronto, to develop jet engines.

Avro was so confident of the design that they invited high-ranking officials from the RCAF and Canadian government to witness this very first test, which went off without a hitch after fixing a minor electrical problem.

Within two months the engine had already passed 100 hours of running time, and on 10 May had reached its design thrust of 6,000 lbf (27 kN).

At the time, it was the most powerful jet engine in the world, although it held this record only briefly until the Rolls-Royce Avon RA.3 was introduced the next year.

In September it was on its way to 1,000 hours when a technician's lab coat was sucked into the engine, complete with a set of razor blades in his pocket.

From then on testing was carried out with a set of metal rings in the intake to avoid ingesting foreign objects.

By this point a problem with fatigue cracks in the seventh and eighth stages had become apparent, which required them to be redesigned and made much thicker.

[1] In one incident at an airshow, all four engines were turned off by mistake, but the Orenda's quick start time allowed them to save the day.

Even before being qualified, the engine had been fitted to the Avro CF-100 and flown on 20 June 1952, with a squadron of pre-production Mk.2 aircraft entering RCAF service on 17 October.

Most notable among these was Jacqueline Cochran's supersonic flight in the sole Sabre 3, which Canadair loaned to her for the effort.

The nose cone also held the electric starter motor, which acted as a generator once the engine was up and running.

The engines used on the CF-100 also contained a uniquely Canadian invention, two prominent winglets at the very front that sprayed alcohol into the intake as a de-icing system.