German Airforce Canberra Bombers

They (or one?) was a common sight at every IAT late 70’s/early 80’s in its all orange scheme. Just like the French operated Canberras I always thought they operated on general expermential work like there RAE/A&EE cousins?

German Airforce Canberra Bombers

Luftwaffe Canberras

The German Canberras were purchased purely as trials and experimental aircraft. Three ex-RAF kites – WK130, WK137 and WK138 were delivered to Erprobungstelle 61, based at Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich, in 1961 after overhaul and modification by Marshalls – they had totally different interiors to RAF Canberras. The three were initially cited for target towing duties (although I don’t believe they flew in this role) before transferring to Manching in Oct 1966.

Ownership was transferred to the West German Defence Ministry, in civil markings, and two were loaned to the Military Geographic Service. One of them served with the German Aerospace Research Institute and was used for high-altitude calibration duties, :rolleyes: connected with microwave and infra-red radiometry also in the “recovery” :confused: and test of rocket payloads.

The other two were fitted with a bomb-bay package of powerful cameras for survey and oblique surveillance.

All three reverted to Luftwaffe markings in 1977.

The TT reference could be because in 1992, one of the Canberras, 99+34, had been fitted with the wings from TT.18 WK123 which had been delivered to the Germans as a source of spares in 1992. These wings did not have the black/yellow underside stripes painted over for some time.

Ref TT.18, WH734. . .
I think this is still at LLandber, struck off charge though, probably in bits there. WK128 was the last TT.18 flying there and that’s grounded now.

Hope this helps. 🙂

Originally posted by Arthur
No, they weren’t target tugs.

So the web pages that say they were purchased as target tugs and then later used for other purposes are wrong?
Have seen a really grainy shot of what was supposed to be a WGAF Canberra – in orange – with a banner behind it (think it was blown up from the corner of a medium format neg or something) that was on a webpage last year, or maybe the year before. – Nermal

No, they weren’t target tugs. For that, they operated Broncos, G91s and Sabres back in the days when they did it themselves.

Officially, the Canberras were used for meteorological research and weather recconaissance. This was BS though – they carried radars and eavesdropping gear to check what the German and Soviet comrades on the other side of the Iron Curtain were doing. The orange paintjob was simple camouflage: nobody would every believe a brightly-painted aircraft was involved with such dark missions 🙂

Without wishing to appear pedantic…
They were not ‘bombers’ but started out with the Germans as target tugs – hence the orange colour scheme.

Flood.

They do stand out quite abit in that orange kinda colour..glad to hear that they were all preserved..thanks for the info guys.

Anyone know what role they used them in ?

Another quick Canberra question? This time a RAF one. Does WH734 does exist?

They had three, 99+34 (ex WK137 ), 99+35 (ex WK138) and 99+36 (ex WK130). All were ex-RAF aircraft, sent to Marshalls in Cambridge for ‘conversion to B2 configuration’ prior to their delivery to Germany in 1966. What meant was is of course that recce gear was built in there.

Two flew until about 1993 with the Luftwaffe, and all three survive. 99+34 is preserved at Schwenningen, 99+35 at Berlin-Gatow and 99+36 is at Sinsheim.

There is one at the Luftwaffe Museum in Berlin/Gatow and one at a small museum in Villingen-Schwenningen in South Germany. I think that the Auto-Technik Museum in Sinsheim (where an AF Concorde went) also has one.