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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0182.PDF
180 PLIGHT THE CAPABLE CANBERRA»* ........ . ... Versatile Developments of a Sound Basic Design POSTERITY will remember the Canberra for diverse reasons.The Royal Air Force as a whole will remember it as the firstcompletely new high-performance aircraft to reach squadrons since World War 2; the U.S.A.F. have found it "a pilot's airplane,"easy to fly and maintain and extraordinary in that it is not of American design; to British engine builders the Canberra has beenliterally invaluable as the vehicle for developing all our first genera- tion of axial turbojets (and other engines besides); and the Canberrahas also performed sterling service in many kinds of development programmes, involving those of guided weapons, flight refuelling,electronics and straightforward aerodynamics. The original design was prepared by an embryo EnglishElectric team which had been formed at the M.A.P's invitation. The first type was the B.I which, since it had no visual bomb-sight, was clearly designed for blind bombing. The prototype, VN 799, flew for the first time on "Friday the 13th" of May 1949.It was equipped with two of the then-new Rolls-Royce Avons and, as a safeguard against possible development troubles, the secondmachine was powered by Rolls-Royce Nenes. This aircraft, and all subsequent Canberras, carried drop tanks at the wing tips. For reasons which seem fairly obvious it was decided to developa visual-bombing Canberra, and this soon emerged as the B.2. The original radar nose was eliminated, the fuselage framing wasextended forward, and a transparent nose was substituted, incor- porating an optically flat panel, offset to enable the bomb-aimerto crawl around the pilot's feet. Production of the B.2 was, by British standards, very substantial. It measures up to its specifiedtask and is well liked by its crews. In order to speed production, three daughter firms—Short andHarland, Avro and Handley Page—were asked to undertake Can- berra manufacture, and all began deliveries during 1952. Before the design was fully "productionized" it was ordered forthe Royal Australian Air Force. A special production feature is the extensive use of mould lofting. Almost every airframe com-ponent is fully developed and laid out on loft plates, of which there are roughly 600 to each mark of Canberra. As the Australianmachine, designated B.20, differed in several respects, the Govern- ment Aircraft Factory in Melbourne was supplied with sheetsprinted in non-reproducing ink, upon which the Australian staff could ink in portions common to both aircraft and make their ownmodifications. All the Canberra daughter-firms in this country were supplied with loft plates, some even conducting their ownlofting. This technique materially assisted production. The next production aircraft was the P.R.3, which was speciallydesigned for long-range photo-reconnaissance duties. The fuselage was lengthened by inserting an extra bay for cameras, and othermodifications included reduction in the number of crew to two and deletion of the flat bombing-panel. This version was manu-factured only by English Electric. At about the same time appeared the T.4. Introduction of theCanberra to Bomber Command left no doubt that there was a need for more pilot training, especially dual instruction, and theT.4 has side-by-side dual controls with provision for a navigator in the rear. It was developed solely as a trainer and is employedat Bomber Command operational conversion units. Each Can- berra and Valiant station also has one or more for normal checks,particularly on the limited panel. As the Canberra developed so did the Avon powerplant, and theairframe was obviously capable of taking advantage of the increased thrust of the later engines. The latter, which are distinguished bythe long bullet fairing housing a triple-breech starter, were first fitted to the Canberra B.5. This was a conyersion of one of theoriginal prototypes and, although it had a visual-bombing panel, had an otherwise "solid" nose and seems to have been intendedfor blind bombing. Increased tankage was also incorporated in this aircraft and in all subsequent marks. All the experience previously gained was built into the nextversion, the Canberra B.6. This machine, which is only now beginning to pass out of production at the parent firm, incor-porated the improved Avon and increased tankage and had a better performance than the B.2. It equipped new squadrons in Bomber This Canberra B(l).8 was photographed during a recent test flight— Command (for the B.2 remains in service) and B.6s are also beingconverted for strike and attack operations with tactical air forces. This mark has also been built in numbers by Short and Harland.A clpsely related machine is the P.R.7, which bears the same relationship to the P.R.3 as does the B.6 to the B.2. It is inlarge-scale service with Bomber Command. For many years English Electric nourished the concept of aninterdictor Canberra, and this project eventually came to fruition to meet an R.A.F. requirement which resulted in the CanberraB(I).8. A wholly new front fuselage is fitted for visual bombing with a crew of two, the navigator being seated ahead of the pilot,who is accommodated in a fighter-type canopy offset to port. Various weapons can be carried internally and on large pylonsunder the wings. Four 20 mm guns are also fitted, these being removable as a complete package from the rear weapons-bay. Theforward bomb-doors are specially stiffened against gun blast. It is believed that this installation provides more rounds-per-gunthan that on any other fixed-gun aircraft. This Canberra epitom- ized the inherent versatility of the aircraft, fulfilling its role as anall-round replacement for the Mosquito. The first B.8 was the old VX 185 (which had been the lone B.5) and it was converted atPreston in the summer of 1954. At this point reference should also be made to various Can-berras which have been equipped with advanced forms of A.I. radar, presumably for research or system development. One ofthese was converted by Boulton Paul, Ltd., to carry an installation which seems superficially similar to that of the Javelin. As the great value of a Canberra interdictor became betterappreciated, the introduction of aircraft with this capability was hastened by converting B.6s on the production line to carry thegun pack and wing pylons. These aircraft are designated B(I).6 and are preceding the true B(I).8s into service with the 2nd T.A.F.in Germany. Another large-scale conversion job is that of turning ex-operational B.2s into T.4s. B.8, RR.9 B6, P.R.7 Disposition of crew seatingin the production marks of British and U.S. Canberra.
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