Replacement for RAF photo-reconnaissance Mosquito aircraft
The English Electric Canberra was an all-metal, semi-monocoque aircraft with a cantilever wing and a wooden vertical stabilizer. A total of 926 were produced by English Electric and Handley Page, including 48 built by the Government Aircraft Factory in Australia and 403 manufactured in the United States by Martin as B-57s for the U.S. Air Force.
The Canberra was the Royal Air Force’s first jet-powered bomber to enter service. It carried no armament and depended on its speed to outrun enemy fighters.
As the Cold War intensified in the early 1950s, the Canberra was ordered in large numbers to replace the outdated Avro Lincoln and to equip new light bomber squadrons. To satisfy demand, production was shared by Avro, Handley Page, Short Bros, and the parent company, English Electric.
Once the bomber version was well established in service, the RAF began looking to the Canberra as a replacement for its aging photo-reconnaissance Mosquito aircraft.
The PR.3 photo-reconnaissance variant made its first flight in March 1950, and the last examples were delivered to squadrons in 1954. By then, the PR.7 was already entering service, but plans were also underway for a new version that could operate above 50,000 feet and surpass the ceiling of both the PR.3 and PR.7.
That aircraft became the PR.9.
According to the Ulster Aviation Society, the PR.9 underwent extensive redesign, including a larger wing, more powerful Rolls-Royce Avon 206 engines, improved hydraulic systems, and a hinged nose to allow access to the navigator’s station.
Navigator’s station in Canberra PR.9
The navigator’s station in the Canberra PR.9 was one of the most uncomfortable crew positions ever designed.
“He had only a very small window and sat in a very cramped position. 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.
Bail out
How could he bail out? The navigator’s station was fitted with a Martin-Baker ejection seat.
“There was a lid on top of his seat that could be jettisoned first. See the black/yellow handle in the last picture left of his head,” Kupferschmid says.
Over the Cold War years, the PR.9 flew missions wherever surveillance was needed, and in later years the aircraft was used in operations over Rwanda, Kosovo, the 2003 Gulf conflict, and Afghanistan in 2006.
Photos by Crown Copyright
