I have a very good book on the Canberra which of course I can’t find, but it relates how in the early days, during interception trials at high altitude, the USAF/Canadian Sabres would fall out of the sky and the Canberras would use their superior high altitude performance to turn the tables and see them off in a dog fight.
That tale is from Roland Beamont’s book Flying to the Limit I believe. It doesn’t relate to interception trials, rather it tells of Bee’s arrival over the US Eastern Seaboard when he flew one out for US evaluation. He’d cruise-climbed from the UK and was around 50 000 when he arrived in their air space. US radar asked for his altitude which he refused to confirm as it was ‘classified’. They therefore sent a number of National Guard F-86’s to look him over but they couldn’t reach him. The radar, it seems, passed him onwards to Maryland after contact from Washington about his flight.
As for the dog-fight bit, because the Canberra had a very low wing loading, it could out turn any of fighters of the day, especially at altitude. It was extremly difficult to even reach a Canberra never mind getting on its ‘six’. Tales abound about this as you will guess. One such is that Canberra sqns were often asked to offer their aircraft as interception targets by fighter sqns, this they did willingly, as one does. But the one that tickles me is when a PR.9 sqn rang a Phantom sqn and offered one of their normal flights as a target, then suggested meeting at 50 000. From all accounts the the phone line went all quiet! There are hundreds, if not thousands, of Canberra stories out there, most haven’t been told yet, hopefully they will after the beast has gone.
😉
Sign In
