Back in post #51 WEBF mentioned a Canberra. This is good.
It's easy to forget that it wasn't only the V's that were nuke bombers, the ubiquitous Canberra also stood that role - in Germany. The B(I)8s of the RAFG Strike Sqns stood QRA loaded with a tac nuke each. And all this while the V Force was "working up".
Is there an example of Britain's least known nuclear bomber in the UK? Well, no. Except for the cockpit of XM279 and the burnt out wreck of WT339 (Barkstone Heath).
There
was one though, at Cosford, WT346.
But then someone (at Cosford) decided it wasn't a fit exhibit for some lame reason and sold it on the New Zealand, the RNZAF Museum at Christchurch in fact. It was dismantled and moved out there in 1993 - and there it still is!
Fourteen years later it is still in a dismantled state, unregarded and covered in the rubberised goo of transport protective coating. (NZ did have B(I)8s but sold them all on to the Indian Air Force.)
Isn't it about time someone considered bringing this venerable airframe back to the UK to take it's rightful place amongst the few examples we have of the Cold War era?
Brief history
here.
