My mum used to be a riveter on the EE Canberra at English Electric, Strand Road, Preston, Lancashire, UK back in the 50's ... that's where she met my dad. He worked on the electrical systems of the Canberra and English Electric Lightning. So, I probably wouldn't be here if it wasn't for this beautiful aircraft!
Your Mum and Dad did good, as said elsewhere, 1966 I played on a scraped Can-bra, Manby Aerodrome. Now I know who put the rivets in and wired all the switches I tweaked. The yellow and Black ejector handle was too frightening to play with. of course it was disarmed but I was only eight. Thanks Simon Baxter
Another twin-engined Beast built at Strand Road was the prototype English Electric Deltic - a locomotive. You'd be thought bonkers if you suggested a modern British company could/should be so versatile!
Juan and the Patey brothers... their enthusiasm can get into aviation the most scared to fly people. Certainly Juan is one of the most experienced pilots in various different kinds of operations and aircraft; from ga to military fighters and transport, to firefighting and now the airlines. Certainly massively helped me get through my fear of planes, which was mostly due to lack of knowledge in the area, and made me love aviation. If it wasn't for him i wouldn't have taken my first flight in a ga aircraft that literally changed the way i look at the world and nature and gave me a purpose in life... this flight just changed everything for me, it made me stronger and taught me to fight for myself. It also lead to another big step of getting my drivers licence, which I thought I would never get; but here i am now almost a year after i got it having my first car😊
@@renataavgeri1132 you know what is funny is I’m a retired aviation engineer and before that 4 years Air Force and in college worked at an FBO. The more I learned the more frightened I became. But when I had to fly a lot in the 80’s and 90’s planes were dropping all over the place and that made me nervous. Everytime I flew. Especially passenger jets. Small planes didn’t bother me too much if I knew the pilot. But in the late 80’s DC-10s were dropping then MD80s. And of course everytime I flew it was the same model a week or two later
These two are former RAF and A&AEE Canberras, built in UK so not technically B57. The one plugged in is in the process of being made airworthy again, the other is a parts donor. Haven't flown for a few years now, but hopefully one of them will soon.
My initial thoughts were that neither one would be airworthy as it looks like a lot of work would be required. I guess someone is prepared to take that on.
I would hope they close up the one they want to fly to keep all the critters out. I think I read a couple of years ago about the effort to get one ready for a ferry flight. Maybe some day.
As a 19 yr old student in a University Air Squadron in the late 70s, I got to take a joy ride in a Canberra from RAF Marham. The pilot and navigator were silver haired gents and absolutely marvellous to me. We were acting as a target aircraft for “some young whippersnapper in an F4 Phantom” over the Wash. It was absolutely fantastic feeling my g-pants inflate as we jinxed about and to their great delight, they managed to avoid their stalker! To celebrate and probably to give me some last fun, they did a run-and-break down the Marham 9k ft runway at heaven knows what height! Fabulous aircraft and a wonderful memory. Thanks Juan for the look around and the chance to reminisce. PS. I nearly got to fly in a Victor bomber the same day!
You were lucky. I did a summer camp at Kinloss and my trip was about an hour pounding the circuit in a Shackleton. I was very impressed by the galley , where I was offered a bacon sandwich and a coffee !! I declined the sandwich 🙀. Not long ago I drove part Kinloss and was delighted to see the hangar and offices where we were based. Nearby was a sorry looking Nimrod on a dispersal, which they were preparing for in 1970.
Hey! One of my favourite places to fly to. The first one you looked at has a cockpit which was used on an altitude record setting flight back in the 1950's. I made a video about these last year, check it out if you want to know more.
Would be cool if either Scott or Juan could chat with the owner of XH567 who is restoring it to fly. Very much not the WB57, but the English Electric Canberra. One of the longest serving aircraft in the RAF I believe. Shame none are flying in the UK anymore :(
Scott don't remind them they are still very upset with us when the English Electric Lighting caught the U2. To avoid risking the U-2, the Lightning was not permitted any closer than 5,000 ft (1,500 m) and could not fly in front of the U-2. For the intercepts.. Altitude 86,000 ft.
@@Woffy. Load of codswallop. No U-2 was ever intercepted at 86,000 feet by a Lightning!!! The Official U-2 Intercept trials done by the RAF in 1962 had a maximum intercept height of 67,500 feet. Mike Hales did intercept one at 65,000 feet in 1986 (totally against official flying regulations at the time as he wasn't wearing a pressure suit or anything like the partial pressure flying kit that the Lightning Jocks were issued with in the 1960's). He did take Lightning to around 86,000 feet over Cyprus (nobody ever took one up above 70,000 feet in the UK, The tropopause isn't high enough for that kind of stuff at 50 degrees north) . However the highest official intercept by an RAF Lightning was not against a U-2!!! On 23 October 1968 Flt Lt Dave Roome of 74 Squadron based at Singapore had the chance to intercept a USAF RB-57 carrying out high altitude meteorological trials on turbulence prior to plans for Concorde to fly commercial services to Singapore. Roome completed the intercept at 65,000 feet. The RB-57 pilot then impressed everybody by doing a 15,000 ft climb, from 65,000 ft to 80,000 ft, while flying a 180-degree turn! He however was surprised when the Lightning which carried out the next intercept overtook him in a descent through his altitude and he advised us that his last run would take some time to set up. This time his altitude was into six figures (100,000 feet plus) and he was safe!! Roome later took a lightning up to 87,800 feet though he admitted that it was something he was only ever going to try once as the pressure jerkin, g-suit and normal oxygen mask he wore on that flight would not have been sufficient keep him alive long enough to get to lower altitude had the cockpit pressurization failed. This is covered in the book "Lightning from the Cockpit": Flying the Supersonic Legend by Peter Caygill.
I remember when I left the raf, I handed in my flight gear at the issue desk and went to the train station which was at the end of the main runway. As I sat there, fairly upset that I was leaving the air force, I looked up and saw a Canberra on final. Was quite emotional I must admit. They are beautiful aircraft.
@@oleran4569 yes, it did. I was very fortunate and was offered a PhD in planetary geology. I worked with amazing people who were incredibly inspirational to me. I now have a good career and fly in my spare time. My passion for aviation will never die. Who knows, maybe I'll become a professional pilot one day, I'm at a critical age though so will need to make that decision fairly soon! Haha
I can still remember as a young kid back in the early sixties in Melbourne watching the Royal Australian Airforce Canberras with my father and older brother approaching to land at the Laverton Air Base just out of Melbourne and remember the sight and sound of their RR Avons, wonderful!
Thanks Juan for the memories !!!! I used to fly both of these Canberras in the mid 1980s whilst in the Royal Aircraft Establishment in UK. We had many different aircraft types, slow, fast, small, big. They were all used for research and development of new military systems. If I recall correctly the first Canberra WT327 was used to develop a synthetic aperture radar which used the forward motion of the aircraft to kid the radar scanner to think it was 100s of feet wide. Came to be used as successful standoff battlefield surveillance. The second XH 567 at one stage had a missile approach warning system. Although old aircraft even when I flew them, often the bomb bay and rear cockpit was filled with very advance stuff that often received the comment "It's just like starship Enterprise" Our flying then was good fun as not subject to the usual RAF regulations, often using the aircraft for very unusual flight profiles. Again thanks for the memories, but sad to see our "rasberry ripple" colour scheme fading away in the Californian sun.........................
"Smells like an old jet" you can hear the great love for aviation in Juan's voice when he said those words. Wonderful video of some wonderful airplanes.
In the early eighties I was on the ground in a grass field. We had just finished a SAM training session in conjunction with a Canberra squadron and one of the Canberras did a wide turn at a distance low level.. When it rolled out towards us for a low flyby, one could not hear it. Deadly quiet. As is sped towards us it seemed almost earie. No sound, low over the ground, almost serene,. As it reached the last half mile or so, the setting sun reflected in an orange glow on the nose and canopy. It was mesmerising. Only when it was almost on top of us, the first whispering sounds became audable. Legend was that our enemy called the Canberras "Whispering Death". As the aircraft slid over us I knew why.
Interesting. Late 80's I was stationed at Merebank just west of Durban. One of these did low circuits just over the base and I certainly couldn't describe it as quiet. It was so low I was worried it might crash. Still remember the sky blue paint scheme vividly.
I flew those jets in Germany 1965-1969. We seldom flew above 250ft except when doing LABS (toss) bombing or starting a dive bombing manoevre from about 6000ft. I have been up to 50000ft in one and it could have gone higher but we didn't have the pressure jerkins that some crews had. And hey! - it wasn't made by British Electric - it was English Electric!
The English Electric 'Can bra' (silent E) Great Aircraft, very strong airframe designed 1940's to replace the de Havilland Mosquito. Engines had cartridge starter in the fan boss. A very capable medium bomber with excellent manoeuvrability. Thanks Jaun sorry you could not take it up.
@@ma-jp8bf Luck bugger, Always a show seeing a the cartridge blow smoke from the front of the engines. I played on a scrap Can-bra (sorry us brits say it this way) in 1966, parked up at Manby Aerodrome Lincolnshire. Also A Gloster Meteor.
@@Woffy. Really lucky, I asked the groundcrewman what they did with the spent cartridge, he handed it to me and said, 'Here you go yank'. Took it back to the ship, HMS CORNWALL (F99), and one of the engineers cut it down, polished it up and put a dime in the primer cavity.
Royal Australian Air Force flew Canberras many years ago. Once, whilst working at the RAAF Laverton air base, I took a stroll at lunch time and was walking towards a hangar which had a Canberra parked in front of it. I looked at it for a while then, as I turned to walk back to our site, they fired the starting cartridge. Damn it was loud - frightened the bejeezus out of me.
If you’re going to tell Americans to pronounce the end of Canberra like ‘bra’ then better point out it’s a short ‘a’ in ‘bra’. Not ‘braaaah’ like a ladies chest garment 😂
I remnember the B-57 when she was just a B-57. And she was THE most graceful bird in the whole sky. She moved about a single pivot point in her fuselage in the most graceful way any aircraft ever did. She BELONGED in the air. I loved watching this beauty fly. Makes me sad to see some of her children in that condition. BUTR, stirs wonderful memories of my own Queen of the skies!! Lovely lady she will always be to me. Thanks Juan, for a little peek back down the alleys of my memories. Kinda bittersweet. But still good.
Those are not your aircraft's children, but its parents, as they are actual EE Canberas, not the B-57s which were only based around the same airframe core. The RAF roundels, "raspberry ripple" colour scheme, and even the original RAF registration number on one give them away. Lovely aircraft, with performance way ahead of their time (which was actually normal for English Electric!). I wish the greatest of good fortune in getting the better one airworthy again, which is the planned future for it - presumably at the expense of the other being cannibalised for some spares.
I repaired aircraft, mostly rotary for about 37 years. Of all the fixed wing aeroplanes I did, these were my favourite. I did B2s, T4s. TT18s, PR7s, 9s and a few others that I don't remember, a truly agricultural aircraft I would say. Sort of like an old tractor, you could bend stuff, bash stuff, file bits down (all of which was in the maintenance manual by the way, written right at the back end of the forties, early fifties), and then send it for a test flight. The pilot would come back and say "At 400 knots it rolls a little to port". So we just filed a bit more , bent a tab, or if we had already filed too much, riveted in a new trim strip and filed that. Ejection capabilities weren't too clever though, especially for navigators and photographers and sadly a few people got killed.
I love watching the Canberra B6 Avons starting up in the absence of an air starter cart, with three jets of black smoke blasting out of the ports near the front of the engines. The Coffman cartridge was probably one of the biggest ever used with 780 grains of cordite. It often took two or even three cartridges to get the Avon to fire up on a cold day. Apparently the pilot would always start the port engine first near the hinge side of the canopy, so that the open canopy deflected most of the choking smoke. They would then close the canopy to start the second engine. There was also a trial of a different explosive called AVPIN but the smoke was very toxic and the material, Isopropyl Nitrate, was quite dangerous to handle.
The Hunters used avpin to start up their avons. The smoke stinks bad n the crew chief had thick gloves to beat down the flames from the avpin that caught fire😅
Canberra aircraft were still used by the RAF until 2006. When I completed my RAF engineering training my propulsion/engine Sergeant was an ex Canberra man. I never worked on them but saw them flying around at many UK RAF stations during my time in a blue suit. Its great that modern science has still used 1940's British aircraft for research. I wonder if these aircraft still have Avon engines fitted? Although long out of RAF service, it wouldn't surprise me to see a Canberra over the UK - I'm not sure if Boscombe Down might still have a Canberra flying. Boscombe Down is the UK airfield used by us Brits for trials and evaluation of aircraft. For example I saw an old Hunter fighter from the 1950/60s flying over my part of the UK earlier this week.
My oldman used to fly in the Canberra when he was in the RAF in the 1950's, nice aircraft, I've always had a soft spot for them just because he spoke about them.
The so-called 'raspberry ripple' colour scheme shows that they were used by the UK Ministry of Defence. I never flew either of those individual aircraft, but we did have a pair (WT308 & WT309), which were used for weapons trials at Farnborough . I did fly in them. Same colour scheme except white underneath to provide better lighting for the cameras fitted. Thank you, Juan, for bringing back happy memories for this old gentleman.
Worked as crew chief on EB-57’s at Hill AFB in early 70’s my first assignment…Bombay loaded with electronic counter measure ( eco ) equipment… flew against radar sights jamming etc. NORAD. Messy engines oil drained down through bearings and out bottom of engine. To back of wings….. used lots of rags and lots of oil 4 quarts per flight wasn’t unusual. Lots and lots of TDY’s to Cold lake Canada and points north.ADC command was a good assignment. 4:23
Fascinating! Thanks for the look Juan. Way back in the late 70's when I went to Australia with a High School Basketball team, a TAA pilot who had flown Canberras took me out to Tullamarine Airport, to fly a DC--sim show me some surplus air-worthy Canberras that were for sale surprisingly cheap. He had quite a love for the aircraft and said they were ferryable to the U.S. with wing and/or bomb bay tanks that Martin developed for the USAF. At the time however there was no civilian use for them. I found a reference to the Bombay tank on the b-57canberra site's 'Heart Throb' page. “It seemed such an inglorious way to send an Air Force aircraft overseas. I worked with some Martin performance engineers to determine if the aircraft could be flown to Japan . The major obstacle was the first leg from California to Hawaii some 2300 nautical miles. Subsequent B-57B flights to Japan would have a 3000 pound ferry tank in the bomb bay, but our modified RB-57As had the bomb bay removed and skinned over to reduce weight. As a result-- no 3000 pound ferry tank. But to my delight, the Martin engineers said I could make it with 2000 pounds remaining under no wind conditions. So I took an aircraft and flew it 2300 nautical miles and sure enough I had 2000 pounds of fuel when I landed.”
Worked on Canberras when i joined the RAF in 1976, Stationed at RAF Wyton. What you showed as "Spoilers" are in fact airbrakes which extend above and below the wings. These Canberras are later models with newer engines which feature tripple breach starters with the longer brea ch covers. If i remember the open bay on the first one you showed is where the batteries were stored. I worked on the T17s which was an ECM model used for jamming raders, and could be equipped with window/chaff despensers with interchangable wing tip fuel tanks. Enjoyed working on real aircraft no FBW or computers!
Juan, the WB-57 is almost a completely different aircraft with the same general configuration, but different engines and almost 50% increase in wingspan with a different arrangement in a tandem cockpit This is an English Electric Canberra B6 which is only roughly comparable to the B-57A of the USAF. The B-57B was built by Martin and had a tandem cockpit and different engines (license built Sapphires instead of Avons) Even the basic Canberra was capable of going up to 60,000 or so feet. I saw those operating as a child in my dad’s squadron Indian Air Force, which was the largest export operator after the US Air Force
So many great storys from us old Englishmen watching this channnel. Glad to see that later aircraft is still airworthy (ish) Lots of these great machines ended their days as target drones 😞
I worked in the tower at RNAS Yeovilton in the early 80's. Canberras flew out of there used as tugs for airborne targets for the RN Ships working up of of the coast. Something went wrong one day, the a/c was hit, returned asap, landed safely and as it taxied past the tower, there were huge chunks of its tail missing. Good aircraft.
Got my private in 1992. Saw this type on static display at Willow Run, Yankee Air Museum, during my ramp rests from pattern work, & wandering around the displays. Great to hear all the comments from a truly global audience, never tiring at all. Great video & history from the best, at 63 I’m stunned& optimistic by the amazing people telling these stories!
One of the greatest joys in my life is finding something abandoned/discarded and bringing it back to life. I got my A&P License, but ended up working on boats, more than anything else. Worked as a boat tech for a long time, then 10 years with OMC (Outboard Marine Corporation) and 15 years with Mercury Marine. The nice thing about boats is that there is a lot less paperwork than working on aircraft. Thanks for your videos, Juan.
Agreed, I was the Chief engineer for 'mv Wincham" in Liverpool, 300 ton Weaver packet. Got her back in ticket as part of the Liverpool Maritime Museum. Crossley HRL4 Two stroke Direct reversing super scavenged diesel. many goods day in the bilge !. Sadly she was scrapped ten years after I signed off buy some pen pushing land lubbing jobsworth. Spent a few hours with Mur-cruisers but we never hit it off......
I can remember being bored in Latin class at school in England in about 1965 and looking out the window when a silver one of these flew over. That was not boring.
Hello. That first compartment is the battery rack. If you look closely you can see one of the two battery connectors it is the teal colored connector at 0:32 😊 Thank you for all of your great videos.
My mate's father was a RAAF Canberra Navigator in Vietnam, later on F-4s and F-111s. The latter was his favourite as for the first time he could see out the front!
Fan of yours Juan, love the channel. I was the maintenance lead on these two aircraft back in the late '90s when they were based at Victorville (ex-George AFB), then Moffett - NASA Ames, then Yolo County (for a moment), then off to Lakeport, never to fly again. We demonstrated two missions - high altitude mapping and weather research (ejecting dropsondes into storms from high altitude). Neither contract ever really materialized. Sad to see them derelict, but time marches on!
The one with the solar charger is very much not abandoned. The owners are working on it, it runs, and the plan is to fly it out. The owner is working through some issues to make it airworthy. It will fly again in the near future.
I worked on B15 for 3yrs, the rear seat you showed is the bomb aimers he moves forward into the glass nose to do his ob, next to him on the inner seat (basically behind the pilot is the navigator.
Check out Scottmanley’s video on these two aircraft. My dad work on RB-57’s during Vietnam. With the wing extensions and turbofan upgrades they are only rivaled by the U-2 for altitude.
Watching from Canberra, Australia! Love your channel, Juan. The last two Canberra fly-over's here have been cancelled! Hoping we get to see one airborne soon.
Those and B-57s are my fave planes. I used to have a picture framing customer who flew one in Vietnam. He gave me a couple of his personal photos of his plane.
When I was at the Fresno ANG in the early 80's, we periodically had a B57 come in with "Green Mountain Boys" on the tail (Montana?). Big belly bay had several boxes of the engine black powder starter cartridges stuffed in. It was fun to watch the black plume on startup. Post flight check we would pour 3-4 quarts of oil in each engine that had an awkward filler neck position. Even tho oil was at the top it always seemed to dribble in another quart. Refueling was tricky to keep it from tipping on its tail.
Correct. I believe those are English Electric B.6 Canberras. The Martin license-built variants for the Air Force had tandem seating instead of the side by side.
The B57 were licensed built by Martin and I think the Martin's use different (US) engines. I would think the NASA planes are Martins as the USAF had many in service with some being used in Vietnam.
You would be correct. These appear to be British built models. While the first version built by Martin have the same cockpit arrangement. Later ones went to a tandem cockpit.
@@rogerkober9836well the first models made by Martin use the same arrangement. I believe from the b model on, they have the Martin improvements like the rotary bomb bay.
There is an entire field full of them at Aberdeen Proving Ground. They are RB-57's and many still have cameras in them. I was able to go all through them back in 81 and acquired several souvenirs.
When English Electric test pilot Roland Beamont brought a Canberra over to the US for viewing by the Martin company at Baltimore, he was asked by New York ATC to give his height. He refused on the grounds that it was military classified information. The controller insisted, saying it was necessary to separate air traffic safely. Beamont advised that at the height he was flying there was no other traffic! Next day he was asked to attend a meeting at the Pentagon where he was asked about this issue. A USAF general asked him what height he was flying, to which Beamont replied 51,000 ft and below the service ceiling of the aircraft. Everyone's jaw hit the floor at that point, as the USAF had NOTHING - neither aircraft nor missile, that could have brought it down. The Canberra was a great aeroplane!
Fifty-seven years ago I was a 2nd Lieutenant stationed at McClellan AFB when a B-57F landed. The aircraft attracted a lot of attention since its wingspan was larger than a U2 and it had four jet engines (2 TF-33's and 2 J60's). A local group of plane enthusiasts asked for permission to photograph the aircraft and I got to escort the them. It was the first time I got to see a B-57F up close and I was amazed by its 122 foot wingspan. We had some earlier model B57 planes land at McClellan, but they were dwarfed by the B-57F.
Wiki on the English Electric Canberra shows the following under survivor's Two British-built Canberras are registered to High Altitude Mapping Missions, Inc. of Spokane, Washington.[230][231] These are N30UP, a Canberra B(I)8/B.2/6, originally operated as WT327,[232] and N40UP, a Canberra B6, originally operated as XH567.[233
I did an undergraduate apprenticeship at BAC Preston division 68-72. Because it was quiet in the design office….MRCA rear fuselage section ….I was allowed to go walkabout with drawings rolled up under my arm. I used to walk onto the apron at Warton, alongside the hangars and when it was all clear I would dodge into a gap between them, and watch Provosts , Lightnings and Canberras doing circuits. I still remember being gobsmacked seeing a “vintage” Canberra get airborne and immediately perform a loop !! I was learning to fly the Chipmunk at the time in the UAS , so this was very impressive. Ejection Seats….the navigator didn’t have one !! Years later when I was an F/O on the DC9, my ex Canberra Captain told me how he flew into a flock of birds flying low level in Germany, and lost both engines. Zooming up to prepare to eject , knowing it was a death sentence for the navigator, the navigator simply said “we’re on right base for ……..”, so they did a dead stick landing to the consternation of the airfield for blocking the runway after landing !! The “design office “ for the Canberra, at the end of WW2 , was in the centre of Preston, and when relinquished it became a garage showroom.
Uncle used to fly these in the 50's, out from E England due east, filming all the way to Turkey via over the USSR at above interception height - one flight at over 50000 resulted in a near fatal landing due to hypoxia!!!
Just the regular Canberra (as in this video) had tremendous high altitude capability. The extended reconnaissance versons could go higher still, nearly matching the U-2.
The group that owns these is planning to get one airworthy - they’re both English Electric Canberras rather than Martin B-57s 👍 I’m surprised in the US with all the airport security you’re allowed to get up close and personal with other folks’ aircraft like this, it’s fascinating!
These specifically are EE Canberra's, not the American license built Martin B-57's. They wouldn't WB-57's if they were American. The WB is the specific long-wing variant and the only version powered by TF33 turbofans.
@@bowdoin5063 English Electric - the company that made them. Their other - more famous - product was the Lightning which went like the proverbial rocket (but not for long) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Electric_Lightning
It turned out better than expected and the US at the time couldn't better it, very strong airframe. English Electric had some very capable engineers and the balls to build cutting edge kit.
Man i used to live in Kelseyville which is the next town over from lakeport in the early 90s and again in 09 but never saw those or even heard they were there!! Excellent walk around Jaun!!!
I worked with the RAF in a Canberra squadron in the mid-60s. RAF configuration had an ejection seat for the single pilot but NOT the navigator who sat behind and below the pilot.
@@Milkmans_Son Same with the V-Bombers (most notoriously the Vulcan). Pilot and co-pilot had ejection seats, the three other crew had to bail out as in WWII bombers. The first service Vulcan flew to New Zealand and Australia in 1956... it's flight over my school left a lifelong impression. But on returning to the UK, it crashed in bad weather at Heathrow, with the two pilots (including the Bomber Command CO IIRC) ejecting while the rest of the crew were killed.
@@awuma Thanks for the reply. I'm sure there are other examples, but it just seems so contrary to the norm. Should the Captain always be last out? No. Should the Captain be first out? Also no. Not all that fun to think about. A Vulcan flyover however is fun to think about. If I could only pick one, that would be it.
When I was getting commissioned in the Air National Guard, Vermont ANG was still flying these B-57s. Brought one down to our graduation at McGhee Tyson ANGB , Knoxville Tenn. long time ago.
Live in Northern California near the NASA AMES research campus and often commute on the San Mateo Bridge to the East Bay. One day saw a very large white drone (in the shape of a Predator drone) above the bridge - had never seen a windowless white aircraft before (early days of drone development). Quite amazing looking at the drone through no knowledge it existed. Just another day in California.
Had some business at this airport in early or mid 90s related to a Bonanza. Very nice area. Was at a business that did sheet metal repairs on damaged light aircraft, don't remember any names but seemed like a well-run business. Had a Beech 18 there they were restoring. I'll get back there some day.
The British Canberras also had small spoilers as airbrakes on the wing. Same as on the Vulcan. The B-57 had fuselage-mounted speed brakes aft of the wings.
Hi Juan, As you may know the Martin B-57s were licence built versions of the Canberra. The B-57As were essentially the same as the original UK design. Later B-57 variants were significantly different. Both of these aircraft are ex Royal Aircraft Establishment aircraft and were based at RAE Bedford (about 50 miles north of London) until the site was closed in 1994. The RAE is broadly equivalent to the US DARPA. I worked on these aircraft at Bedford for about 5 years, designing and installing all sorts of experimental equipment for flight trials. Such a shame they have been left to rot. The good news is there is one original English Electric Canberra airworthy and flying here in Australia.
Ach what a shame to see such great aircraft being left open to the elements there. Theyre the original English Electric Canberras rather than the WB-57s which were license built by Glenn L Martin. Hopefully they can be rescued. The red white and blue paint is the original RAF livery for aircraft being used for testing and airborne research. Its known in the UK as "Raspberry Ripple" after the ice-cream flavour.
These birds are actually English Electric Canberas. Martin began building an improved B57 that was a copy of the foreign plane in the late 50's with different engines, a tandem cockpit, and a rotary bomb bay. The USAF had a few British made planes, but the ones that went to Vietnam and eventually to work for NASA are the Martin built versions. The old bombers that went to Vietnam used black powder starting systems and were a noisy and impressive site in the air. Also had an opportunity to see one of the NASA aircraft with the lengthened wings and the modifications for instruments, also a very impressive sight.
Yep, they’re super cool. I watched them fly out of Ellington. I had one come into my FPO at bush intercontinental because of weather. Quite a weird flying machine.
The Canberra is a neat looking aircraft. Unpopular opinion, but I’m partial to the license-built Martin B-57G conversions that had the nose modified to include LLTV and laser designation equipment late in the Vietnam war.
These are not B57s as such. These are English Electric Canberras, these are the original. They have 2 Rolls Royce Avon turbojets. B57 had J65s, (licensed built Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire turbojet). Both with a cartridge start. Shame these are sitting here, what is the plan for these aeroplanes?
If you like this, go to Greybull, Montana and see some of the old aircraft left behind after the fire fighting outfit left. I went there while they were still operating. There was a parts boneyard there at the time and that was as interesting as the aircraft.
Canbarra were very advanced in their day.....a very clean high altitude bomber which still seem relevant today ....jets incorporated into the wing would be a prime candidate to fit the new generation of electric jets.Impressive design and build..all be it needing modern materials to be relevant today.Guess boith the spare parts and frame hours are fighting against common operations with this ship.
I was stationed ay Westover AFB, MA, in the early 70's. We had a squadron of B57's. They were either used for ECM work or a weather squadron. Als had a couple of WB-47's.
Always enjoy your early evaluation of air accidents. Just watched your walk around the two Canberrans at Lakeport. I did a tour in the Airforce may years ago at Selfridge Air Base. We flew the F-106 and the B-57's were targets. They were loaded with all the latest jamming avionics for disabling our on-board radar systems. The b-57 would simulate Russian bombers coming at us over the north pole. There were 3 bases with the F-106s to protect our northern border. One in Minot ND and one in Loring ME.
