Aviation B‑class

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Military history: Aviation / British / European Start‑class

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Just an FYI, I will be making B-57 a separate page. It was fairly different (especially the long-wingspan variants) from the British Canberra and had an extensive combat history. - Emt147 ^Burninate! 05:26, 12 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"The fuselage contains two bomb bays with payload stored inside the rotating door."

The B-57 had a rotating bomb bay door but the British version didn't...

Source - Canberra - Operational Record

Yes, you are correct. The rotating bay was an XB-51 carryover by Martin. I'll fix the article. - Emt147 ^Burninate! 18:01, 1 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

When was the Canberra so named? When it first flew Menzies had been out of power for 8 years, & had been Australian PM for only a little over 2 years between 1939 & 1941. GrahamBould 11:27, 12 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It says that the B-57 was built to replace the B 26 Marauder. All information that I have indicates that the B-57 was chosen to replace the Douglas B-26 Invader. So I changed it...

Yup, whoever wrote it got the two B-26s confused. Thanks for catching that! - Emt147 ^Burninate! 07:51, 29 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

One statistic given at the RIAT airshow 2006 was that the longevity of the Canberra would be equivalent to the Spitfire having remained in RAF service until 1993! Would this be something to add to the page?

Is the Canberra still in service or not? The first para says no, yet the "Service" section says it is still in service in the US. GrahamBould 10:56, 26 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I wanted to know that. All the stuff on the web is about the PR9 (even tho it lacks a successor) but what about the other marks that are/were in RAF service (RN etc)? Of course the Canberra must still be in service elsewhere in the world isn't it? Also I read in a recent aviation mag that the PR9s are in private hands implying they could be leased back or at least their services some time soon. At least one will likely still fly at airshows too I suppose.

Cheers, Roy. 22nd August 2006

Maybe the key to this is the words "in service" - maybe that means with an air force. GrahamBould 11:58, 22 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I hope these are useful:

(1) “The pilot sits on a Martin-Baker ejection seat while the bombardier-navigator has to rely on a conventional escape hatch and parachute”.

My experience was of the bombers B2 and B15. The standard for this fuselage was to have the pilot to the left of the broad bubble canopy and two navigators sitting behind. All were provided with ejection seats. The bomb aimer would leave the right hand navigators seat to do his work in the nose, scrambling back to that ejector seat if necessary. However, on ferry or positioning flights, the walkway to the right of the pilot might be blocked by a folding jump-seat for the use of a fourth occupant. This person would wear a suitable harness and have a clip-on parachute; he would be expected to use the cabin entrance door for his departure. The marks B6 and B16 would have been identical (although the B16 might have only carried one navigator because of a sideways-looking-radar on the cabin starboard wall). Although the PR3 and PR7 normally operated with only one navigator, the front fuselage was effectively the same – I never found out how many ejection seats were provided in these aircraft. The T4 had two pilot seats with one navigator seat behind – again all ejection seats. The PR9 had room only for two crew, the navigator occupying an ejection seat in the nose in front of the pilot. I am not sure about the B8 and its overseas versions - in this case only, the given description may be correct.

(2) “The fuselage contains two bomb bays with conventional clamshell doors”.

The norm would surely be the B2/B6/B15/B16 bomb bay, which was a continuous chamber running the full length of the cylindrical fuselage up to the cabin rear wall. There were three suspension points spaced equally along its length - a representative operational full internal load would be three pairs of 1000 lb bombs. I think you might only be describing the B8 which (usually ?) carried a heavy gun pack in the front section of the bomb bay, with two pairs of bombs behind. The PR types enclosed a lot of the lower fuselage to accommodate cameras and had a much shorter flare bay as a result.

best wishes

roop1940

No mention on Short Bros article about making Canberras, surprising... GrahamBould 16:14, 7 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Extremely picky - but while present-day Pakistan is blue on the map, Banga Desh is not. Bangla Desh (then East Pakistan) was part of Pakistan until 1971, the period when the combined Pakistan had Canberras. So shouldn't Bangla Desh be blue on the map? GrahamBould 08:51, 18 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Also, the light & dark blue in the map both appear the same dark blue - probably my monitor... GrahamBould 12:23, 25 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]