A UBC professor and specialist on the Arctic has raised safety questions about the use of new single-engine F-35 aircraft in Canada's north.

Michael Byers, a professor of political science and former NDP candidate in Vancouver Centre, has concluded in a new report that engine failures still occur, and sometimes it's only a plane's second engine that averts disaster.

"The issue is especially important for Canada, which has the longest coastline in the world and vast Arctic territories," Byers wrote. "As one former CF-18 pilot told FrontLine Defence in May 2011: 'A single engine is stupid. There's no backup. If it fails, you're dead.' "

The report for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (and jointly released with the Rideau Institute) reviews the history of military planes used in the Arctic, including the CF-104 Starfighter, which was in service from 1961 to 1987.

It had one engine and, according to Byers, this "made it vulnerable to crashes involving bird strikes".

"As a tactical strike aircraft, the Starfighters flew fast at low altitudes, exacerbating this risk," Byers wrote. "During the 26 years of operation, about one-quarter of Canada's 110 Starfighter crashes were attributed to bird strikes."

That led to the loss of 39 pilots, causing this plane to be nicknamed the "Widow Maker", Byers added.

The Starfighter and the twin-engine CF-101 Voodoo were replaced by the twin-engine F-18. Newspaper reports during the tendering process noted that Canadian Forces pilots preferred the twin-engine plane over the single-engine F-16.

In his report, Byers detailed how the F-16 had a troubling safety record, with 297 of the U.S. Air Force's 1,300 lost in crashes.

"Although information on some of the crashes is limited, at least 76 and as many as 166 were caused by engine failure," Byers wrote. "The Norwegian Air Force has lost 16 of its fleet of 72 F-16s to crashes. At least six of the crashes involved engine failures, three of which were caused by bird strikes."

The Conservative government continues backing the single-engine F-35, which are made by Lockheed-Martin.

This support comes even after the auditor general, Michael Ferguson, told a parliamentary committee that Conservative cabinet ministers knew that the government's order of 65 planes would cost $25 billion. This was $10 billion higher than the Conservatives were admitting during the 2011 election campaign.

Earlier this year, the CBS newsmagazine show 60 Minutes broadcast an alarming report on the F-35, which is the Pentagon's preferred warplane.

The U.S. is reportedly spending $400 billion to purchase 2,400 of these aircraft.

"If it performs as advertised, the F-35 will enable U.S. pilots to control the skies in any future conflict against the likes of China or Russia," CBS correspondent David Martin said in the 60 Minutes introduction. "But the F-35 has not performed as advertised. It's seven years behind schedule and $163 billion over budget, or as the man in charge of the F-35 told us, 'basically the program ran itself off the rails.' "