Canberra nose wheel collapse, Akrotiri

[Mr Dallas]

Apologies if this is far to random a question to ask, but through if anywhere might have the answer its here :)

my Grandfather served at RAF Akrotiri between 1955 and 1958, during his time there with 103MU he spent many many hours repairing a re-skinning a Canberra following the nose wheel collapse on landing.

Now he was always under the assumption that one of the many altitude records broken by the canberra was completed by this aircraft, and in fact its landing at akrotiri was directly following a record attempt

Talking through with him he can't remember serials etc, however chatting through WK163 the other day we wondered if there was anyway of finding out which aircraft it was.

[sooty655]

The Operations Record Books for the station (RAF Akrotiri) and for 103MU for the relevant dates are available at The National Archive at Kew. The references are AIR 28/1324 and AIR 29/3607.
If you don't get a definitive answer on here, it may be worth a visit.

[DaveReidUK]

Apologies if this is far to random a question to ask, but through if anywhere might have the answer its here :)

my Grandfather served at RAF Akrotiri between 1955 and 1958, during his time there with 103MU he spent many many hours repairing a re-skinning a Canberra following the nose wheel collapse on landing.

Now he was always under the assumption that one of the many altitude records broken by the canberra was completed by this aircraft, and in fact its landing at akrotiri was directly following a record attempt

Talking through with him he can't remember serials etc, however chatting through WK163 the other day we wondered if there was anyway of finding out which aircraft it was.

There were two altitude records set by Canberras during that period - Walter Gibbs' in August 1955 with WD952 and Mike Randrup's in August 1957 with (rocket-powered) WK163.

[Old-Duffer]

Don't forget that during Suez 'unpleasantness', a pilot pulled up the undercarriage of his Canberra deliberately.

Old Duffer

[goudie]

My old boss was a flt sgt running the line when that happened. Pandemonium broke out, apparently, as one can imagine

[DaveReidUK]

Looks like the OP has lost interest in his question ...

[Old-Duffer]

No DRUK, he's not lost interest but is stuck in the traffic near Dover and the broadband signal is useless.

Old Duffer

[megan]

a pilot pulled up the undercarriage of his Canberra deliberatelyMust be a good story to relate there Old-Duffer.

[wrecker]

Memory fades but wasn't the Lowering of the a/c (raising the u/c) a 13 sqn a/c at RAF Nicosia during the Suez crisis

[RedhillPhil]

F/O Kenyon. WH915. Nicosia

[DaveReidUK]

Flight report on the impending Court Martial:

https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1957/1957%20-%200123.html

[Warmtoast]

Result of Court Martial

Contemporary press report:

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/Image1_zpsqjqru577.jpg
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/Image2_zpsheryf2vo.jpg


Later in May 1957 sentence was reduced to six-months imprisonment, but he remained cashiered.

[redsetter]

In response the original question, Canberra WK163 was detached to Idris in June 1957 for tropical trials with the Double Scorpion engine, but I've not seen anything to suggest it visited Akrotiri, or had an accident there. As a previous poster mentions, the Akrotiri ORB might mention the incident.

There were certainly other non-record breaking Canberras that had nose undercarriage problems at Akrotiri. E.g. PR.7 WH801 in June 1956, landed with nosewheel retracted, repaired by 103 MU.

[MrDallas]

Still here, apologies as the info is fantastic, had a nightmare with my account

sitting round at my grandparents whilst he reads this thread so been a fantastic trip down memory lane for him, especially as he wanted 3 months for EE to advise on how to carry out the repair and weeks and weeks whilst they actually repaired it

[MrDallas]

i should add he is searching through pictures as we speak to add anything for the story

he did also repair what seems to be WH801 or one of the others 3 canberras during the Operation Musketeer incident where it lost quite a bit of elevator

[Cam.shirl]

[QUOTE=MrDallas;9488610]I should add he is searching through pictures as we speak to add anything for the story