FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1952
1952 - 0140.PDF
58 News and Views Concerning the R.A.F.'s Twin-Jet Bomber Illustrated with "Flight" Photographs TO see the first jet-bomber squadrons of the R.A.F. we made our way, last week, to Binbrook in Lincolnshire. The aircraft are English Electric Canberra B.zs and already they equip No. 101 Squadron, while No. 617 has recently started to convert on to these excellent light bombers. The Air Ministry is emphatic that introduction of the Canberra into R.A.F. service signals the start of Bomber Command expansion, and not merely a re-equipment pro gramme. Selected crews from existing Lincoln (and, later, Washington) units will convert on to Canberra s to form new squadrons, though the piston-engined machines must per force remain in service, side by side with the jets, until the introduction of the four-Avon Vickers Valiant. An account of the construction and development of the Canberra appears on pages 71-74 of this issue, and before giving an account of the Binbrook visit we are impelled to make some observations on operational aspects. The first of these is prompted by an official affirmation that the Canberra "will be able to carry a considerably more destructive load than the average war-time heavy bomber." On the face of it, assuming an "average war-time heavy bomber" to be a Lan caster, with a maximum bomb load of 14,000 lb, this is re assuring; but striking an average between the Whitley and Lancaster, and taking into consideration the Stirling and Halifax, and types of lesser capacity, such as the B-17, the figure arrived at (if, indeed, one can be arrived at by such a flimsy hypothesis) may not be very impressive. In any case, the photographs on page 72 prove that the Canberra's bomb bay is small by comparison with the Lancaster's. It may be, of course, that the Air Ministry intends to inti mate that deadlier explosives, of more or less conventional composition, have been developed since the war, or (and there is good reason to believe that this is so) that the Canberra will carry an atomic bomb, as will the North American Savage of comparable dimensions. Nine 101 Sqn. Canberras at Binbrook. In contrast with the "leggy" Lincoln in the background, the jet aircraft have an oddly squat look.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
