Hi I need some help witha couple of Canberra B2 noses that were at Blackbushe in October 1981. I can remember them being outside near Doug Arnolds hangars , they were in the early black bottom, silver/grey top scheme. I was only 11 at the time and my dad recorded them as WD962 and WT327. WD962 was last heard of on the Farnborough dump in the 60’s. And of course WT327 became G-BXMO and is still flying in the US, but was known to have had several different noses. Any ideas on these two?
Rob
By: farnboroughrob - 27th January 2009 at 17:27
Don’t know if it help but remind me some good memories, I took those two photos in Blackbushe in late 70’s. Canberra nose (remember only one) and Danish two seat hunter (ET-271 I think)
Cheers,
Olivier
NC900 that’s certainly how I remember the Canberra noses, although I remember both of them as being complete with canopies, and side by side,but it was 27 years ago. Im guessing as they were not marked, the information may have come from LAAS or Air Britain magazines of the time and may have been wrong? So it could actually be the B2 nose from WK135 that was fitted to WT327, very confusing? What of WD962, which is probably the one pictured above? All sources i can find say it was scraped at Farnborough in 1969? I have always thought it strange that they were there, not something Doug Arnold was likely to collect and long before the days of private cockpit collectors.
By: NC900 - 27th January 2009 at 16:02
Don’t know if it help but remind me some good memories, I took those two photos in Blackbushe in late 70’s. Canberra nose (remember only one) and Danish two seat hunter (ET-271 I think)
Cheers,
Olivier
By: AMB - 27th January 2009 at 15:42
Hi I need some help witha couple of Canberra B2 noses that were at Blackbushe in October 1981. I can remember them being outside near Doug Arnolds hangars , they were in the early black bottom, silver/grey top scheme. I was only 11 at the time and my dad recorded them as WD962 and WT327. WD962 was last heard of on the Farnborough dump in the 60’s. And of course WT327 became G-BXMO and is still flying in the US, but was known to have had several different noses. Any ideas on these two?
Rob
WT327 was actually a B(I)8, which underwent a radical change to its appearance in 1969 when the B(I)8 nose was removed to be replaced by a B.2 nose from WK135. This itself was replaced in 1971 with the nose from WK163 which incorporated a Laser Ranger and Marked Target Seeker system (LRMTS). Five years of flight trials and development with this system were ended when WT327 was moved to A&AEE in 1976 and finally to RAE Bedford (Thurleigh) in 1977. As the nose was changed at Farnborough and Blackbushe is close by, it looks like it gravitated over there for reasons unknown. Not sure what else you are asking?
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January 27, 2009 at 3:27 pm