The Canberra PR.9 incorporated a hinged nose for access to the navigator’s station, which included an ejection seat.
The English Electric Canberra was the first jet bomber to be deployed by the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was unarmed and depended on its high speed to evade enemy aircraft.
With the escalation of the Cold War in the early 1950s, a significant order for the Canberra was placed to replace the outdated Avro Lincolns and to establish new light bomber squadrons. To satisfy this requirement, production was carried out by Avro, Handley Page, and Short Bros, in addition to the main company, English Electric.
With the bomber variant successfully integrated into service, the RAF started to evaluate the Canberra as a substitute for its outdated photo-reconnaissance Mosquito aircraft.
The photo-reconnaissance PR.3 variant made its inaugural flight in March 1950, with the last units being delivered to squadrons by 1954. At this point, the subsequent version, the PR.7, entered service, but plans were already in progress for another model that could operate at altitudes exceeding 50,000 feet, surpassing the ceiling of both the PR.3 and PR.7.
The new model would be designated PR.9.
As stated by the Ulster Aviation Society, the PR.9 would undergo significant redesign and enhancement of the Canberra, featuring a larger wing paired with more powerful Rolls-Royce Avon 206 engines, upgraded hydraulic systems, and a hinged nose to allow access to the navigator’s station.
It’s worth mentioning that the navigator station in the Canberra PR.9 was among the least comfortable, as illustrated by the images in this post.
‘He had only a very small window and sat very cramped. The original design called for the latest automatic radar to be housed in the nose, but long delays in radar development resulted in a crewman being placed there instead,’ says André Kupferschmid, former F/A-18 plane captain, on Quora.
Note the small side window at the front.
‘My late father-in-law, who flew in PR.3’s and PR.9’s (as well as Vulcans and Phantoms) during his RAF career, referred to the navigation compartment windows as “day/night indicators.”’ Alex Dicey, an aviation enthusiast, recalls on Quora.
How could he bail out?
The navigator station had a Martin-Baker ejection seat.
‘There is a lid on top of his seat that can be jettisoned first. See the black/yellow handle in the last picture, left of his head,’ Kupferschmid says.
During the Cold War, the PR.9 conducted missions whenever surveillance was necessary. In recent times, the aircraft was used for operations in Rwanda, Kosovo, the Gulf conflict in 2003, and Afghanistan in 2006.
Photo by Crown Copyright
