Flight Manuals Volume 38 |
English Electric B.2 Canberra Pilot's Notes
82 pages
The English Electric Canberra is a British first-generation jet-powered light bomber manufactured in large numbers through the 1950s. The Canberra could fly higher than any other bomber through the 1950s and set a world altitude record of 70,310 ft in 1957. Due to its ability to evade the early jet interceptors, and its significant performance advancement over contemporary piston-engined bombers, the Canberra was a popular export product and served with many nations.
In the United States, the Canberra was built under license by the Glenn L. Martin Company as the B-57. Due to its extremely high ceiling, the modified WB-57F is still in use by NASA for high altitude research. Photo credit: MilborneOne@wikimedia License: CC BY-SA 3.0 |
English Electric Canberra B(I) Mk 6 Pilot's Notes 184 pages The English Electric Canberra is a British first-generation jet-powered medium bomber that was manufactured during the 1950s. It was developed by English Electric during the mid-to-late 1940s in response to a 1944 Air Ministry requirement for a successor to the wartime de Havilland Mosquito fast-bomber; amongst the performance requirements for the type was the demand for an outstanding high altitude bombing capability in addition to flying at high speeds, these were partly accomplished by making use of newly-developed jet propulsion technology. When the Canberra was introduced to service with the Royal Air Force (RAF), the type's first operator, in May 1951, it became the service's first jet-powered bomber aircraft. |
English Electric Canberra B.6 and B.(I)6 Pilot's Notes 60 pages Thoughout the majority of the 1950s, the Canberra could fly at a higher altitude than any other bomber or even any other aircraft in the world. In 1957, one Canberra established a world altitude record of 70,310 ft. In February 1951, another Canberra set another world record when it became the first jet aircraft to make a non-stop transatlantic flight. Due to its ability to evade the early jet interceptor aircraft and its significant performance advancement over contemporary piston-engined bombers, the Canberra became a popular aircraft on the export market, being procured for service in the air forces of many nations both inside and outside of the Commonwealth of Nations. The type was also licence produced in Australia and the United States of America, the latter building it as the Martin B-57 Canberra. |
English Electric Canberra B(I) Mk 8 Pilot's Notes 163 pages In addition to being a tactical nuclear strike aircraft, the Canberra proved to be highly adaptable, serving in varied roles such as tactical bombing and photographic and electronic reconnaissance. Canberras served Jin the Suez Crisis, the Vietnam War, the Falklands War, the Indo-Pakistani wars, and numerous African conflicts. In several wars, each of the opposing sides had Canberras in their air forces. The Canberra had a lengthy service life, serving for more than 50 years with some operators. In June 2006, the RAF retired the last of its Canberras, 57 years after its first flight. Three of the Martin B-57 variant remain in service, performing meteorological work for NASA, as well as providing electronic communication (Battlefield Airborne Communications Node or BACN) testing for deployment to Afghanistan. |
English Electric Canberra Mk.4 Pilot's Notes
191 pages
Photo credit: Col. Andre Kritzinger License: CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Martin B-57B Canberra
216 pages
The Martin B-57 Canberra is an American-built, twinjet tactical bomber and reconnaissance aircraft that entered service with the United States Air Force (USAF) in 1953. The B-57 is a license-built version of the British English Electric Canberra manufactured by the Glenn L. Martin Company. Initial Martin-build models were highly similar to their British-built counterparts; Martin later modified the design to incorporate larger quantities of US-sourced components and produced the aircraft in several different variants.
The B-57 Canberra holds the distinction of being the first jet bomber in U.S. service to drop bombs during combat. The Canberra was used extensively during the Vietnam War in a bombing capacity; dedicated versions of the type were also produced and served as high-altitude aerial reconnaissance platforms (the Martin RB-57D Canberra), and as electronic warfare aircraft. The Canberra was also sold to export customers abroad, further combat use was seen by the Pakistani Air Force during the Second Kashmir War and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. In 1983, the USAF opted to retire the type; the B-57 Canberra's retirement marked the ending of the era of the tactical bomber. The three remaining flightworthy WB-57Fs are technically assigned to the NASA Johnson Space Center, next to Ellington Field in Houston, as high-altitude scientific research aircraft, but are also used for testing and communications in the U.S. and Afghanistan. |
Martin B-57C Canberra 300 pages The B-57C is a dual-control trainer variant. 38 aircraft of this type were built. |
Martin RB-57A Canberra 216 pages The RB-57A is a photo reconnaissance version with cameras installed aft of the bomb bay; 67 were built. RB-57A avionics included an AN/APS-11A transponder and AN/APA-90 Indicator Group for command guidance (LEFT, RIGHT, CLIMB, DESCEND, BOMB, etc.) and was tested for "MSQ-1 controlled pinpoint photography" in 1954 ("Night Photo Bombing" capacity was 21 M-120 Photoflash Bombs). |
Martin/General Dynamics RB-57F Canberra Flight Manual 320 pages The Martin/General Dynamics RB-57F Canberra is a specialized strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed in the 1960s for the United States Air Force by General Dynamics from the Martin B-57 Canberra tactical bomber, which itself was a license-built version of the English Electric Canberra. It was operationally assigned to the Air Weather Service for weather reconnaissance involving high-altitude atmospheric sampling and radiation detection in support of nuclear test monitoring, but four of the 21 modified aircraft performed solely as strategic reconnaissance platforms in Japan and Germany. |
Martin/General Dynamics WB-57 Canberra Experimenter's Handbook (NASA)
95 pages
Three of the RB-57F modified aircraft were destroyed with loss of their crews while performing operationally. The remainder were re-designated WB-57F in 1968. Four of the survivors were subsequently used by NASA for high-altitude atmospheric research. The others were retired from 1972 to 1974 and placed in storage.
As of 2015, three WB-57Fs are the only B-57 aircraft model still flying, in service with NASA. |
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