LesBGerman 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. 🙂
LesBMoggy
You’re probably right! 😉 There are four types of Canberra canopy, as follows :
1. Standard “bubble” type with one Direct Vision (DV) window. Fits all Canberras except B(I)8 and PR.9.
2. Standard “bubble” but with two DV windows for the T.4 (trainer) only.
3. Fighter-type, non-opening, for the B(I)8.
4. Fighter-type, opening, for the PR.9
Wonder just how many other aircraft have such a range of canopy types?
:rolleyes:
Guzzineil
The canopy type you are after will, in all probability, be a standard “bubble” type – either No 1 or No 2 above. There would seem to be fairly easy access to Canberra T.4 type canopies, the other type (Canberra B.2) is not so readily available.
If it’s a “fighter-type” I’d be very interested to hear for what Canberra cockpit it is intended.
Try asking your question on the forum of the International Cockpit Club web site. They cater for all sorts of “collectors” and preservationists there and have a thriving “Canberra” community.
PS. I note in the latest Flypast magazine someone is selling a PR.9 type canopy. Wonder where they got that?
LesBHi dhfan
Not any significant difference in my Cat, but phil’s looks a bit better – probably the colour cast contrast has reduced slightly (or gamma increased slightly?).
Interesting experiment though, but one that will not, I think, truely show “good” results. This is because, as I see it, the skies, other colours and definition in my photos (here on this forum) are muddied by granularity, phil’s are not.
For a start, the pics I scanned were not on gloss photopaper but semi-matt. This causes a distinct diminishing of resolved definition which, unfortunately, makes everything look “muddied”. Phil’s images are direct from the film stock hence less obvious granularity but also, less exposure latitude (unless adjusted after scanning as you did).
After the OM-1 I got an OM-2S in the states. Awesome camera, for about a year, then the “computer” packed up! Would have cost more than I paid for the kit to get it repaired so I reverted to an OM40 which served me well until 2 yrs back, then the exposure comp went on the blink – bought a Cannon outfit with Cannon glass with which I’m well pleased – still a tad “soft” though, but I blame commercial processing for this. They seem to process films to take account of the harshness given by flash photography as nearly everybody uses cameras that “flash” these days.
Don’t blame you for trying to get genuine Olympus glass, it can’t be beat, except maybe by Nikkor stuff. As for the Sigma, it was all I could afford in those days, not very good glass in my opinion, just a tad better than Vivitar though.
😎
LesB. . . and 5 Sqn were there! A Frightning, fast and furious as I recall. Nothing like a Lightning re-heat fly-by to make the kids drop their ice cream. 😉
LesBWell philglt, we must have been standing pretty near each other . . .
LesBOK, “senior moment” troops, sorry. The place is RAF Brawdy! :rolleyes:
Finally asked the wife, should have done that in the 1st place I guess – they always know don’t they. 😉 Couldn’t recall the actual date though so it’s still up to you guys – sometime in the early 80s is best guess.
These pics were mixed up with photos of other air shows. We used to go to Finningley’s Open Day every year as we had friends who were still in the mob posted there in those days.
Here’s another from that Brawdy show, a German doing lo & slow. Just look at the crowd-line! It was a “Families Day”, as we now recall, and, as with the Finningley connection, we had friends who were still “in” at Brawdy.
LesB2003 has to be notable for the welcome number of appearences of the Canberra WK163. The public first saw it in its brilliant new Bomber Command 1 colour scheme at Coventry, and then it went from show to show (seemingly). It is still amazingly sprightly for a 48 year old airframe (that carried a rocket motor in its bomb-bay) and the Canberra team deserves to be applauded for their efforts over the past couple of years to keep it flying. 😎
Apart from that, just who is it that’s enlarging all the d*mn airfields these days? They never seemed to involve all that miles of walking when I was younger! 😉
LesBWymeswold . . .
I seem to remember it was used as a satellite station for RAF Syerston, at least during 1960/61. Our Jet Provost studes (2FTS) used the place as an “away landing” venue. When detailed on “away” duty, as ground crew, we’d be trucked there in a Bedford 3-tonner from Syertson – at 06:00! (Still remember the cardboard box full of cardboard cheese sandwiches and bottles of cardboard orange juice we took with us as “lunch”.) :rolleyes: Refueling was carried out by the Fields guys, the rest of the turnrounds were by us RAF blokes. There were Daks around as I recall and, as has been said, Viscounts. No pictures, sorry, but the name brought back memories of long chilly rides in a 3-tonner on dark and frosty winter mornings. 😉
LesBI have a couple of bits ( about 2Mb in total) of “home movies” showing the Omani Jags doing their infamous flybys on the range and on the pan. Be glad to mail them privately to anyone who wants them. They’re WMV files, will play in Windows MediaPlayer.
Meanwhile, here’s another Omani Jag (not from the movies).
LesBIf you’re talking about East Midlands Aeropark their T.17 – WH740 – can fire up its Avons but the last time was before the move to the new area I think. If it has run since, I’d be happy to hear about it.
LesB“Hey, look at the flying program for today, just downloaded it from DuxNet to my wrist watch for 565 Euros – cheap this year innit? Anyway, sez here the RAF are coming with their Historic Aircraft, be good to see 5 Squadron’s Global Express again. When was the last time it flew? Right, 2031! Still I remember the old days when they had, oooh, all three aircraft in the air at once. And look, the Blenheim’s flying at last! Good one. What else? Right, there’s Grace’s Spit, and Black 6 doing a lo-fast, no, hang on, it’ll be on top of an Eddie Stobart trogging down the 200 yards of runway. Sheesh, I’d love to live in one o’ them houses next to the tower, looking out at all that space. Hang on, late news. Well, seems that the Army’s warbird isn’t coming after all. Thought they’d have sorted their Apache by now. Right, flying’s from 14:00 to 14:10 so I’m back to the motor for a sandwich. Luckily I managed to get a parking place on the M11. See ya.”
LesBLancman
Ref ARCO. If you say so then I guess they can do miracles. Certainly hope so.
But. . . somehow I can’t see the Blenhein flying again – taxying yes. Certainly hope I’m wrong though. Will buy ONE beer of your choice amongst all of you if it does. 😀
And look! 50! My half-century! Not much compared to some of you, but then, I’m older’n most of you – takes me l o n g e r. :rolleyes:
LesBcas
the weight of the bomb released from the rack simply forced open the door enough to allow it through. the doors are prised open by the ground crew and lock to allow re-arming then it was a case of watch your fingers when released.
Well, there you go! 😉 I’m obviously thinking waaay too technical for that age of aircraft. Still, I wonder how the doors would/will respond to sharp pull-up in flight? (ie, change of a/c direction). A touch of G would tend to have them sag open a bit I think.
For example, the Canberra nosewheel doors are closed/opened by mechanical linkage connected to the hyd-powered nose jack mechanism – pretty reliable and fool-proof really (but a bit of a bu**er to set up correctly). But if a pilot applied an over-enthusiastic “back-stick” on t/o they would, sometimes, not close fully so causing a “nosewheel red”. This was, more often than not, the reason for “nosewheel reds” on Cranberries. Even those “rigid” mechanical links could give problems over the last half inch or so of travel, enough to cause a bit of non-compression of the door seals. Although the doors were closed to all intents and purposes, the uplock microswitch hadn’t been “made” – so “n/w red”! Cycling the gear usually cleared this though.
Would be interesting to hear/read any tales about this aspect from the Blenheim’s operational/war days. I say operational because I don’t think the surving Blenheim would do hi-G flying (or bombing).
Anyway, thanks for the info. Being a rigger on Blenheims must have been quite a dicey job. Also, thanks for the psi detail. 😉
LesBLet’s hope for lottery funds then and a willing CAA.
Be a shame not to see the Bleheim fly again though. It is, in my mind, just as important an aircraft in the scheme of things as the various Spits’n’bits that are flying – maybe not as “sexy”, :rolleyes:
In fact, I think a good argument could be made for the Blenheim to become an “honourary” part of the BoBF!
LesBGood set Snapper, very instructive.
As others have said, the team will probably get things back together but it will take stacks of geld (the lottery?), lots of time and fantastic dedication.
In my RAF days, such damage as the fold at the wing root would have been classed as Cat 5 and the kite scrapped – then given to a BDRF somewhere. Even if classed as Cat 4 damage, this aircraft would have been out of service at an MU for anything up to one to two years. And to get that sort of treatment (and resources) the kite would need to be valuable to the service in some way.
No, I think that the Bleheim, being owned by an enthusiastic preservation group, will probably be seen by the public again in the future – but maybe only as a taxying example? 🙁
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