Canberra to be retired

[ou Trek dronkie]

Final flight for RAF veteran
By Michael Evans



The RAF’s oldest operational aircraft, the Canberra, which has been in service for 55 years, is to end its flying days in July.

The three remaining Canberra PR9s are equipped with the same cameras that are fitted to American U2 spy aircraft, and have been used in most recent conflicts. A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence denied that the decision to remove them from service was linked to a crash that killed two pilots in 2004.

From The Times today

[SASless]

If a crash that kills two pilots is the reason to bin a whole series of aircraft...we would be walking and not flying I fear. However....if the HSE folks had their way.....

[air pig]

Then how do you look at them ???????? How to give your enemy an element of surprise.

[Beeayeate]

air pig : From the eight question marks it was obviously, to you, a meaningful and even relevant and passionate question. As was your simple sounding sentence that followed.

Query . . . what are you on about? :confused:

[last third]

The chap that did our nav ground school on pilots cse was a Canberra Nav and he had some frontier type warries. Vietnam in a canberra huddled into a midget sized station interacting only by the ICS as the nav station and pilot station were displaced.

In its day I suppose it was cutting edge stuff. Good effoert to the crews that trained and flew the canberra.

Lasty.

:)

[Beeayeate]

Lasty
Vietnam? In a PR.9? Would love to hear about that. :rolleyes:

And the Canberra was never "cutting edge stuff", probably not even in its heyday! But it did the job - for 55 years. :ok:

.

[FJJP]

That would have been the USAF B57, not the PR9...

[Beeayeate]

Yes FJJP, but the text didn't read correctly for a B-57. Lasty wrote ". . . in a canberra huddled into a midget sized station interacting only by the ICS as the nav station and pilot station were displaced." which I read to mean the 9's coal-hole in relation to the pilot's high chair. The description doesn't seem to refer to a B-57 with its tandem seating under an extended fighter-type canopy.

A further thought - was Lasty's 'chap' an RAF nav? If so, his story would be interesting if he'd flown in B-57s in Vietnam. He could have been an American instructor though I guess.

.

[pr00ne]

B(I)8,

Perhaps he was RAAF, they flew the Canberra operationally in Vietnam for some time.

What is going to eventually close this self opened "capability window" and when?

[The Helpful Stacker]

B(I)8,
Perhaps he was RAAF, they flew the Canberra operationally in Vietnam for some time.
What is going to eventually close this self opened "capability window" and when?

Can't they just keep a sqn of Jags with recce pods? I'm sure with a bit of fettling they could be coaxed to the same sort of service celling as a Canberra.

:}

[Zoom]

Sorry, Stacker, but you need proper wings and decent engines for that.

[Onan the Clumsy]

The RAF’s oldest operational aircraft, the Canberra, which has been in service for 55 years, is to end its flying days in July.

My God! what's next? will they get rid of the Dakotas?

[Safety_Helmut]

"Capability holiday" is the term of choice in the MoD I believe !

SH

[Titan Locked]

Pr00ne

I suspect this (http://www.raf.mod.uk/equipment/rec_sys.html)! (The first one, not the second, although both are flown on the same platform!)

[last third]

Hey guys have been away for a few days.

Yep RAAF crew in Vietnam flying canberras is the story. Forget the SQN however they were deployed from RAAF Amberley in QLD Australia. As for cutting edge yeah totally agree however we are talking 1960's and hence the machine was probably high speed in that era.

Heard an interesting file tape of a conversation between a RAF Canberra Pilot and Nav while flying into South Africa (Rhodesia?) and telling the ATC guy to knob off as they were taking over the airfield and any aircraft that were to become airborne would be destroyed, so he suggested that all aircaft remain on the ground until further instructions were issued. Good for a listen.

Lasty

:cool:

[henry crun]

last third: It might have been 1960's for the RAAF but it was a decade earlier for the RAF.

[TownshipDog]

Lasty, that story you're refering to is from the Rhodesian bush war when the RhSAS and others raided some terrorist training camps just outside Lusaka. Green Leader, a canberra, circled overhead the airport at Lusaka and informed Lusaka tower that he was now in control of the airspace over Zambia and if any Migs were scrambled he would blow 'em out of the sky. Obviously the Canberra had no air-to-air capability but the were a couple SAS boys lying in the bushes with SAMs and some Hunters on standby at a foward base.

Big respect to that guy...

[fredbare]

Moe importantly, when and where is the party to see out this gallant warrior?

[H Peacock]

The following link will (should!) take you to the 39 (1PRU) Sqn web site. You will see details of the proposed events:

http://www.rafmarham.co.uk/organisation/39squadron/disband/index.htm

In sum:

6 July 2006 - Formal Dinner - RAF Wyton. Hosted by The Canberra Association
26 July 2006 - Evening Hangar Party - RAF Marham
27 July 2006 - Formal All Ranks Dinner in the Officers' Mess, RAF Marham
28 July 2006 - Disbandment Parade at RAF Marham
30 July 2006 - Laying-Up of the Standard - St Clement Danes Church

The RAF Marham Families day will also be on 27 Jul. You can register your interest in these events through the web link. In addition there should be a PR9 on the display circuit for a few shows (Waddo, RIAT).

The Sqn are about to go away on Det and should return at the end of Jun. If not I guess they'll miss their own party!


H Peacock

[last third]

Henry Crun. Mate can't really follow your reply suffice to say that my p-ss can reach at least a meter and a half up wall at the o'mess dunny, even higher when I climb on the roof.

The fact that the RAF was in vietnam 10 years earlier (1950??) doesn't really fit in the history time line associated with the Nam.

Good luck with your next p-ss!!!!

:\

[Beeayeate]

Lasty, it was the RAAF's 2 Sqn in Vietnam. Had bombs mounted on their wing-tips.

.

[chevvron]

That's 'cos it wasn't called 'Nam, it was called Indo China.

[henry crun]

last third: No piss take intended, and I did not say the RAF were in Vietnam at any time.

However, having reread our two posts I can now see where there was room for misunderstanding.
I was commenting only on your statement that the Canberra was cutting edge in the 1960's.

Just to clear things up, I believe it was cutting edge in the 1950's but by the 60's that edge was becoming blunt.

[MrBernoulli]

Does the starter of this thread ,ou Trek dronkie, have a connection somewhere south of the Limpopo river? Just a thought.

Can't send a PM or e-mail so I have to place this here.

[Solid Rust Twotter]

One has it on good authority that used to be the case, Mr B...:ok: