Just discovered that there are two Canberras at Mesa Falcon Airport in Arizona. They are N76764, ex WK142 and N76765, ex WJ614 belonging to the Jet Aviation Historical Society. Having forgotten that the Royal Navy operated Canberras, presumably not ship-borne (!), what was their role and why are they now in the US?:confused:
By: Seaking93 - 16th November 2007 at 08:53
Was at Falcon Field, Mesa last week and the Canberras are still in outside storage next to the line of C54’s and the C47, however one of the staff at the CAF Museum understands one of the TT18’s may be coming over to the museum on loan
By: stringbag - 11th November 2007 at 10:03
Pretty sure that N2138J is TT.18 WK126, currently stored at Staverton in the UK.
By: ZRX61 - 11th November 2007 at 04:26
There was one with that style paint job at Van Nuys a few years back. It was there for quite a while…
By: contrailjj - 11th November 2007 at 02:41
4 Canberras even!
From the US classic jet registry…
Canberra TT18 N2138J EEPR/EA36640 Boise, ID, Steve Picatti
Canberra TT18 N76764 EEP13535, Jet Aviation Historical Society, Phoenix, AZ
Canberra TT18 N76765 HP/HI/181B, Jet Aviation Historical Society, Phoenix, AZ Airworthiness – Experimental, Operations – Research and Development
Canberra TT18 N77844 HP/HI/161B, National Aviation Museum and Foundation of Oklahoma, TULSA, OK Airworthiness – Experimental, Operations – Exhibition
By: stringbag - 10th November 2007 at 23:00
Just a bit of news on WJ574 – she was in open store at Melbourne International Airport, Florida, USA.
She suffered damage to its right wing aileron in 2005, after JP T.5A XW316 was pushed tail first into it during a hurricane storm.
By: bazv - 10th November 2007 at 22:43
Lovely pic stringbag
I always liked working on Canberras as you can tell by my avatar,good simple understandable stuff.
I even managed aT4 ride when I was on the OCU..fantastic, Tbird rides were always really difficult to get.
Cheers Baz
By: pagen01 - 10th November 2007 at 22:40
Yeah they were left outside mainly, on the Picketston site (on google earth you will see the hulk of one there). The BBMF Lanc was worked on there back in those days, along with the Spits. There are some great pics in the tower of the Lanc and the Canberras departing.
By: stringbag - 10th November 2007 at 22:30
I believe WK126, WJ574, WJ614 and WK142 were all flown to St Athan for storage in December 1992.
They all then sat there (possibly in open store from the day of arrival) for a few years.
I’m sure I have seen fots of the BBMF Lancaster, taken at St Athan in the mid 1990s after some major spar surgery, with WJ614 in the background all covered up!
By: pagen01 - 10th November 2007 at 22:28
SB, were these the ones stored at St Athan? I can’t imagine two lots went to the States and didn’t realise it was over 10 years ago!
Our SATCO remembers the pilots coming to collect them and the poor state of the aircraft.
By: stringbag - 10th November 2007 at 22:26
– November 1992. Retirement formation. 🙁
By: stringbag - 10th November 2007 at 22:23
Former FRADU Canberra TT.18s WJ614/846 and WK142/848 were both bought at auction by a US-buyer and flown out to the USA in 1995.
They were maintained for several years in airworthy condition but have since moved into open store.
There is another ex-FRADU TT.18 in the States, WJ574/844. This too used to be airworthy but is now also in open store somewhere keeping a JP Mk.3A company.
My hard disk is locked at present, making it impossible to access to my site to refresh my memory as to exactly where it is located, but both aeroplanes suffered damage in a recent hurricane if that helps!
FRADU operated Canberras from 1972 to 1992; the T.22 from 1974-85, a small number of T.4s from 1972-86 and around 10-12 TT.18s in total.
Five of the latter variant were kept on strength (3/4 active, 1/2 in store) from 1986 until retirement, which included the three above.
Of the others, WK126/843 was also going to fly out to the USA in 1995 but never made it. It’s now in store at Staverton.
The fifth aeroplane was WH887/847, which ended its days at Llanbedr as a Christmas tree for the DERA fleet.
No complete T.22s exist, only one cockpit section – WT525/855 owned and loved by Richy Doel.
Of the T.4s only one remains complete today, WJ874/857. That aeroplane is now owned by Air Atlantique and painted up as the prototype VN799.
By: pagen01 - 10th November 2007 at 19:49
I think they were the two Canberra TT.18s that were taken out of storage at St Athan, and flown to the states by a private buyer, about 3-4 years ago.
They were used in the target towing role over various ranges, simulating air attacks to warships, and they had role with the Navys fighter school.
Originally with 776 FRU, then FRADU, they were based at Yeovilton.
By: bexWH773 - 10th November 2007 at 18:37
Just discovered that there are two Canberras at Mesa Falcon Airport in Arizona. They are N76764, ex WK142 and N76765, ex WJ614 belonging to the Jet Aviation Historical Society. Having forgotten that the Royal Navy operated Canberras, presumably not ship-borne (!), what was their role and why are they now in the US?:confused:
They were FRADU TT18’s, no they werent shipbourne, as for heading stateside, theyre now privately owned. As to their present status, I have no idea, maybe LesB can fill any gaps. Theres also a couple of other Cranberrys over there doing High Altitude stuff too.
Bex
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November 10, 2007 at 5:52 pm