A set of cameras donated by the Photographer Boy Entrant Assoc have now been fitted into MAM’s Canberra PR.3. The old girl has her “eyes” back! 😉
BE Photog Assoc donated a couple of F-95’s, an F-52 and an F-49. Mean anything to you? No, thought not. But it means a whole lot to the on-going work to make WF922 the best static Canberra displayed in the UK.
A customised “frame mount” had to be made to fit the F-52 up into its position in the back-hatch and a mounting plate had to be made for the F-49 as well, also mounted up in the back hatch. Again, home-fabricated mountings were made for the F-95 cameras that look out sideways from the forward camera bay.
Pics of these camera installations show the good work done by Malc over the past couple of weeks in getting the Canberra ever nearer it’s RAF PR state (still need a Tacan and coupler if anybody has one . . ). The mounting frames for the cameras had to be fabricated because the originals were probably removed when WF922 was flying “trials” out of Bocsombe Down. But the main thing is that MAM’s PR Canberra has cameras again after over 30 odd years! 😉
I’ve also included in the pictures a shot of the nav’s station. This is just to show that the internal areas have not been forgoten. Intention is to make it look as if the pilot and nav will be along any minute . . . 😎
By: Peter - 14th November 2005 at 16:16
Terrific job on the Canberra Lads! Just goes to show that you needn’t be a huge multi million dollar museum in order to do a very accurate and loving restoration of one of your aircraft
Well Done!
By: RPSmith - 14th November 2005 at 09:09
Great news about the continuing restoration and donation/addition of cameras – keep up the good work
Roger Smith.
By: LesB - 14th November 2005 at 08:52
Thanks motf, very encouraging of you to say that. Mostly it’s because the three of us are all ex-RAF Canberra blokes – with a Chiefy in charge. . . 😉
You should cut along and get some pix of it (and the other ‘frames) sometime. I personally would like some good cockpit internals taken as I don’t have a wide enough lens for my Cannon (only have a 28mm from my 35mm days). DB has a batch but they were taken some time back before the latest phase.
🙂
By: Manonthefence - 14th November 2005 at 07:22
No. We like it the way it is. Let it go Albert.
Hear Hear, she looks great the way she is.
Les its great to see some grass roots restorations that actually happen instead of some pie in the sky schemes that I have been reading about in the past week.
By: LesB - 14th November 2005 at 00:18
Les, Get Malc to repaint that ‘VN799’ the other side of the fence in its correct colours and markings?
No. We like it the way it is. Let it go Albert.
By: ALBERT ROSS - 14th November 2005 at 00:02
Les, Get Malc to repaint that ‘VN799’ the other side of the fence in its correct colours and markings?
By: LesB - 13th November 2005 at 23:47
Thanks Dave and Albert, I’m sure Malc will be pleased to hear your comments.
As for the internals being “back to how it was”, well, that is something that the majority of visitors won’t actually see unless they ask specifically.
One point though, there’s still a lot of “trials” equipment and mounting points in the air frame. In fact, in the F-52 pic the blue painted equip panel and orange wiring are trials-fit gear. This equip is scattered throughout and pretty much embedded and integrated into the structure so, unfortunately, WF922 will never actually be revertable to RAF standard as it was when with, say, 39 Sqn. It’s just unrealistc to even think about stripping it out. But as I’ve said before, with just a little licence Malc’s got this PR.3 now nearly as good as the only other one at Hendon. And you try getting anywhere near that one! 😎
.
By: ALBERT ROSS - 13th November 2005 at 22:46
That’s quite amazing Les! I was extremely pleased when she was externally restored to 100% authenticity, but ‘internally’ is another matter! Many museums are lucky to have a ‘shell’ restored to museum standards, but to get the interior back to how it was is a great achievement. Well done!
By: Dave T - 13th November 2005 at 22:27
Well done Les and team.
Many congrats’ !! 😀
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November 13, 2005 at 10:11 pm