The video in this post is previously unseen RAF Museum Archive footage of different variants of the English Electric Canberra (with special attention to the various training versions) at RAF Cottesmore.
This post features previously unseen RAF Museum Archive footage showcasing different variants of the English Electric Canberra, with particular focus on the various training versions filmed at RAF Cottesmore.
Canberra was the aircraft with the longest service history in the RAF.
The English Electric Canberra was a first-generation British jet-powered medium bomber that W. E. W. ‘Teddy’ Petter designed. What distinguished it throughout the 1950s was its ability to fly at higher altitudes than any other bomber, and it was this aircraft that set a world altitude record of 70,310 ft (21,430 m) in 1957.
The story began in 1944, when what the Air Ministry required was a successor to the de Havilland Mosquito ‘with no defensive armament and a high-altitude capability to evade interceptors’. Following numerous post-war political and economic delays, it was on May 13, 1949, that the initial A.1. prototype (VN499) took its first flight, by which time the Ministry had pre-ordered 132 production aircraft in various configurations. According to BAE Systems, what the aircraft continued as was the A.1 until the then-English Electric Managing Director Sir George Nelson eventually renamed it Canberra in 1950 (Australia was the first export customer).
Such was the ease of transition from propeller aircraft into the Canberra that it entered full service with 101 Squadron RAF on May 21, 1951.
The success and adaptability of the design was such that it was built in 27 versions, which equipped 35 RAF squadrons, and it was exported to more than 15 countries, including Australia, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Ethiopia, France, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Peru, Rhodesia, South Africa, Sweden, Venezuela, and West Germany.
Additionally, 403 ‘Canberras’ were manufactured under license by Martin (Glen L. Martin Company) as the B-57 Canberra, again in several versions.
The Canberra was retired by its first operator (the RAF) 57 years after its first flight, after its final mission over Afghanistan in 2006.
Strangely enough, NASA still uses three WB-57 Canberras for research flights. As such, its career continues.
Photo by Mike Freer via Wikipedia
