History of the Canberra

The Canberra was Britain's first jet bomber. It held 22 World Records.

W.E.W. "Teddy" Petter, former chief designer at Westland, was hired by English Electric in 1945 to give this company, which made thousands of bombers and early jet fighters, the ability to design it's own aircraft.

The resulting English Electric Canberra first flew on 13th May 1949, and astonished everyone by it's amazing agility.

The Canberra entered RAF Bomber Command service in 1951, the Canberra outperformed intercepting fighters in height, speed and manoeuvrability, and gave rise to over 20 basic varients in British service, plus many more for export. These included France, India, New Zealand, Peru, Rudesia, South Africa, Sweden and Venezuela.

The Canberra B(I).Mk 8 of 1954 introduced a new nose with the nav/bomb-aimer in front and the pilot under a fighter canopy offset to the left.

Previous marks had mainly been three-seaters, with two crew in ejection seats behind the pilot.

The radar equipped Canberra B.Mk 1 was not put into production, so the first varient was the Canberra B.Mk 2 with a visual bomb-aiming position in the nose for a third crew member, who had to leave his ejection seat before the high-level bombing run.

The Canberra B.Mk 6 introduced more powerful engines as well as underwing pylons for two further 454kg (1,000lb) bombs, and like some other versions added fuel in the leading edge of the outer wings.

All bomber versions were equipped with a visual aiming station in the nose, though the offset-canopy Canberra B(I)Mk 8 and it's many derived export versions normally operated at low level and bombs were sometimes released by the pilot in close dive attacks.

These tactical models could also be fitted with a removable pack of four 20mm cannon with well over 2,000 rounds of ammunition.

A total of 1,376 aircraft were produced and remained in front line operations for 21 years.

Varients were built in Australia and the United States, the latter being designated Martin B-57.

History of Canberra WK126

Built by A.V.Roe at Woodford, WK126 was ready for collection on 1 June 1954. Taken onto RAF charge it was first issued to 9 Sqd at RAF Binbrook. WK126 was next transferred to the ownership of 100 Sqd (RAF Wittering) where it served until 1959 when 100 converted to the Canberra B.6. This B.2 next surfaces in 1968 so where was it for nine years?

On 21 May 1968 WK126 was transferred to BAC (Warton) for conversion to TT.18 Target Towing configuration. It was delivered to 27 Maintenence Unit on 13 November 1969 and into the charge of the Royal Navy . Then, on 19 June 1970, WK126 was moved to Flight Refueling Ltd to take part in missile trials and Research and Development flying. In the November of 1970 it transferred again to Airwork Services Ltd (Hurn) and they operated this TT.18 in target towing duties for the Navy's Fleet Requirements Unit (FRU) [see photo above]. Eventually it was transferred to the charge of the Fleet Requirements and Air Direction Unit (FRADU) at RNAS Yeovilton. No detail on how long it stayed with FRADU but it is next noted as going into store at RAF St Athan in 1989. FRADU brought it out of storage briefly in January 1990 and it flew again until it was put back in store at RAF St Athan in October 1990.

After storage at RAF St. Athan, WK126 was auctioned off in 1993 and arrived at the Jet Age Museum June 1995. It is currently on loan to the museum from Gary Spoors and David Price.

CANBERRA MODIFICATIONS

B.1 - first production version, light bomber.

B.2 - improved B.Mk.1, 418 built.

B.5 - prototype with Rolls-Royce Avon 109 engines, 1 buil.t

B.6 - Rolls-Royce Avon 109 engines, 99 built by English Electric and 30 built by Short.

B.8 - two-seat high-altitude bomber.

B.12 - export version for South Africa

B.15 - aerial photography aircraft with improved navigation system.

B.16 - B.Mk.15 with increased range.

B.20 - B.Mk.2 built by GAF in Australia, 49 built.

B.52 - export version for Ethiopia.

B.58 - export version for India.

B.62 - export version for Argentina.

B.66 - export version for India & Peru.

B.72 - export version for Peru.

B.78 - export version for Peru.

B.82 - export version for Venezuela.

B.88 - export version for Venezuela.

Martin B-57 - licensed version of B.Mk.2 built by Martin in USA.

PR.2 - reconnaisance aircraft, 34 built.

PR.3 - reconnaisance aircraft with longer fuselage.

PR.7 - reconnaisance version of B.Mk.6.

PR.9 - high-altitude reconnaisance aircraft.

PR.57 - export reconnaisance version for India.

PR.83 - reconnaisance aircraft for Venezuela.

T.2 - trainer for radar operators, 8 built.

T.4 - improved T.2, 75 built.

T.11 - four-seat trainer for pilots and navigators.

T.17 - ECM trainer.

T.19 - trainer.

T.22 - trainer.

T.64 - trainer for Argentina.

T.67 - trainer for India.

T.74 - trainer for Peru.

T.84 - trainer for Venezuela.

TT.18 - target-towing aircraft.

U.10 - targer-towing aircraft.

CANBERRA ACTIVE FLEET LIST

RAF No. 39(1 PRU) Sqn.

Base - RAF Marham

Aircraft - Canberra T.4/PR.7/PR.9

Role - Photo reconnaissance

Formed - 15th April 1916

The unit is due to move to Waddington in the near future.

Serial                      Type                       Operator                       Code/Notes             Date