The Canberra can be classed as one of the greatest aircraft of all times, it was the first jet bomber to enter service with the Royal Air Force, the German Arado Ar 234 “Blitz” being the worlds first. Near the later stages of WW2 the UK Ministry of Aircraft Production was looking for a jet bomber to replace the Hawker Typhoon in the role of fighter-bomber.

The first request for the replacement jet bomber was for an aircraft with approximately 40,000lbs “all-up-weight” that would be powered by a single 12,000lb thrust engine mounted in the rear fuselage. By the end of 1945 these specifications had changed to a high-speed two-crew bomber and given the title B3/45.

In early 1946 a contract was placed with the English Electric Company for four prototypes of the English Electric A.1. The first wooden and cardboard mock-up was produced in a garage in Coronation Street, Preston.

For three and a half years the building of the prototypes continued and by mid 1949 the first of them had been constructed at English Electric’s airfield at Warton and in May of 1945 VN799 was rolled out.

VN799 Roll-out © British Aerospace

After a number of engine tests, she was fitted with a pair of Rolls-Royce RA1s engines, and undertaking a series of short “hops” down the runway, the big day of the first full test flight of the Canberra A.1 arrived. On Friday 13th May 1949 VN799, painted all blue, took to the skies, flown by English Electric’s chief test pilot, Roland Beamont the flight lasted twenty-seven minutes and the only issue reported during the flight was a very slight over balanced rubber. This was quickly fixed by removing part of the “horn” balance; this gave the aircraft its well known square cut tail fin. The other three prototypes, VN813, VN828 & VN850 were quickly modified before their first flights.

Test flying of VN799 continued throughout 1949, in September of that year she had her first public appearance at the Farnborough Air Show, Roland Beamont undertook a short take-off then put the Canberra into almost vertical climb and then did a number of high and low level high speed passes. The Canberra was the Queen of the show; no-one was left in any doubt of its design and flying merits.

VN799 at Farnborough 1949

The remaining three prototypes all made their test flights in the final months of 1949.

Because of the way in which the test programme was progressing to well, other problems started coming to light. The bombing radar equipment was well behind in development and as such there were calls for a revised variant of the aircraft. So another four prototypes were constructed under specification B5/47 and called the B.Mk2. The delayed B.1 was to be designed with a crew of two sitting side-by-side, the B.Mk2 variant had a provision of a third crewmember, a bomb aimer. The first B.Mk2 was VX165 which made its maiden flight on 23rd April 1950. She was quickly followed by VX169; both these aircraft were equipped with the Rolls-Royce Avon RA3 engines. These engines would be the type that would be fitted to the Canberra’s already on the production line.

The first “true” production produced Canberra B.Mk2 was WD929, which was part of the initial batch of seventy aircraft. WD929 first flow on 8th October 1950 and was released for RAF service in April 1951. It was WD2929 that was christened “Canberra” by the Australian Prime Minister of the time Sir Robert Gordon Menzies in January of 1951 at RAF Biggin Hill.

On the 25th May 1951 the first operational was equipped with the Canberras, 101 Squadron at RAF Binbrook became the first Squadron in RAF Bomber Command history to be equipped with jet bombers. During this period of time Bomber Command was still equipped with mostly Avro Lincolns and Boeing Washington’s. The dawn of a new era was being written in RAF history.

Main Variants of the Canberra

During 10 years of production 782 were produced by English Electric and her sister companies, 48 were built under licence in Australia, 403 were again built under licence in the USA for the USAF, by Martin Company in Baltimore.

There were a total of forty variants of the Canberra; this includes thirteen for the USAF.

B.Mk1

Crew – Two
Engines – Rolls-Royce Avon Mk.1/RA2, with 6,000lbs thrust each engine.
Total Fuel Load – 10,992lbs
Maximum Bomb Load – Unknown

RAF T4 painted as B.Mk1 prototype © Crown Copyright

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Followingg airplanes are present on this images:

OV-10 Bronco

DHC-1 Chipmunk T10 s/n WP800, DHC-1 Chipmunk T10 s/n WZ879, Handley Page Victor K1A s/n XH648, McDonnell-Douglas F-15A Eagle s/n 76-0020, De Havilland DH-89A Dragon Rapide s/n HG691, Vickers Varsity T1 s/n WJ945, North American OV-10A Bronco s/n 99+32, Scottish Aviation Bulldog T1 s/n XX612, Avro Shackleton MR3 s/n XF708, Hawker Nimrod II s/n K3661, Avro Shackleton MR3 s/n XF708, Fairey Gannet ECM6 s/n XG797, Gloster Javelin FAW9 s/n XH897, De Havilland Sea Vixen FAW2 s/n XS576, McDonnell-Douglas F-4M Phantom s/n XV474, Focke-Achgelis Fa330A-1 s/n 100143, Schweizer T-3A s/n 252983, Morane-Saulnier MS.502 s/n CF-HF, Percival Proctor III s/n LZ766, Gloster Meteor F8 s/n WK991, Hawker Hunter F6A s/n XE627, Goodyear FG-1D Corsair s/n KD345, Messerschmitt Bf-109E-3 s/n 1190, Hawker Hurricane IIA s/n Z2315, Bristol F2b Fighter s/n E2581, Polikarpov I-15bis s/n 19, Focke-Wulf Fw-190A s/n 980554, Supermarine Spitfire LFIX s/n MH434, Bristol Bolingbroke IVT s/n R3821, Hispano Ha-1112 Buchon s/n 1, North American T-28 Fenec s/n 517692, Supermarine Spitfire LFIXc s/n MH424, De Havilland Sea Venom FAW21 s/n XG613, Westland Wasp HAS1 s/n XS567, Mil Mi-24D Hind s/n 9621, DHC-1 Chipmunk T.10 s/n WP859, Noorduyn AT-16 Harvard IIB s/n FE695, Curtiss H-75A-1 Hawk s/n 82, BAC Strikemaster 80A s/n 1133, Supermarine Spitfite T9 s/n H-98, Westland Whirlwind HAS7 s/n XK936, English Electric Lightning F1 s/n XM135, SEPECAT Jaguar s/n XX108, Harrier GR3 s/n XZ133, Avro Anson I s/n N4877, De Havilland Mosquito TT35 s/n TA719, Avro Canada Canuck s/n 18393, North American Yale s/n 3349, Goodyear Corsair s/n KD345, Westland Lysander IIIA s/n V9673, Supermarine Spitfire F24 s/n VN485, English Electric Canbera B2 s/n WH725, BAC TSR-2 s/n XR222, Westland Wessex HAS1 s/n XS863.

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Robert Hodgson

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