Another mystery Canberra?
 

I know the aircraft is well known, but there's a long-running saga concerning the aircraft's initial paint scheme. The attached image suggests that it may have been painted fluorescent orange - at least one former Shorts man claims it was, but there's no colour imagery to prove or disprove the theory.
Anyone have any thoughts on this?
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y14...tim/orange.jpg

Apparently the aircraft sported a number of different paint schemes. One correspondent on the net has seen the aircraft in silver and dayglo, all white, RAE Raspberry Ripple and the final Hemp. There is some suggestion that there may also have been a pink scheme.

http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviatio.../3/0216338.jpg

A few XH132 schemes here

Air-Britain : XH132
SC 9 CANBERRA CONVERSION

I remember doing a practice Q launch against that thing back in the 1980s. A heavy F-4 against a light, manoeuvring modified PR9....:uhoh:

Last time I saw that aircraft, or rather the nose section, was at RAF St Mawgan in the early 1990s during a ULAS summer camp - back in the days when the RAF could afford its own military trainers, enough QFIs to fly them and to run annual UAS summer camps....:mad:

I found this on the Brtitmodeller forum:

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/i...ow+%2Bcanberra

[Edit: took sometime for me to get the link right. You should now see the model version of the dayglow Canberra. Text suggests that that particular colour scheme was short-lived]

Well, the accepted wisdom was that it started out white, then went into silver, then "Raspberry Ripple" and finally hemp (after it was grounded). I never doubted any of this as photos support that story, but the photo I posted above does clearly show that it was painted before the all-white scheme. The problem is that a black & white photo doesn't clarify anything. Instinctively, I'd assume it was painted in yellow primer, but I've heard various people claim that at least one former Shorts employee insists it was fluorescent orange.

I'm still not convinced, as it seems unlikely that it would have been painted orange and then repainted so very swiftly in white. Seems like a very expensive proposition. Plus, it seems odd that there are photos of the aircraft in every guise, but not orange. And of course primer yellow would be a far more logical colour in any case.

On the other hand, one recalls that the RAE's Javelin was painted overall fluorescent orange, so it's not such a wild idea... and the photo does look very like the way that fluorescent orange looks in black & white. I suppose the key to this story is just how reliable the "man from Shorts" was/is.

So, the mystery continues!

I very much doubt an aircraft would have been left in its primer and then decals, roundels, serial no etc applied. But strange things do happen.

You may wish to contact the admistrator on this site. He writeshttp://ipmscanberrasig.webs.com/apps...ight-of-fancy-

The only orange Canberras I can think of were the 3 ex-RAF B2/B6 aircraft operated by the Luftwaffe:


More information here: http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histo...canberras.html .

It's interesting that John says he asked someone at Shorts about this. I was under the impression that the story was being circulated mostly by word of mouth, but if Shorts can actually confirm that it was initially painted orange, I guess that's as close as we're going to get to some facts on this - so I'll drop a line over to Shorts and see what they have to say.

Thanks guys!

Strange business though if it is true - one wonders why fluorescent orange would have even been chosen for a paint scheme, and just as crazy is the notion of stripping it all off again!

The live target aircraft from Llanbedr destined for the bottom of the Irish Sea were painted orange.

Yellow and red actually :)

I know absolutely nothing about Military aircraft,not a lot more about Civilian ones :ooh: HOWEVER!
Ihave been in the Motor Trade and can tellyou that "fluorescent " colours are/were applied as a WHITE reflective coat followed by a translucent COLOUR coat.

Some reds, yellows ,greens and blues can be made without solid pigmentation. Indeed, it's sometimes so difficult to"block- out" the underlying colour that the whole job has to be painted in a solid pigment first.

So, it's possible your subject was painted with a white ground-coat and subsequently with a tinted lacquer to turn the white into "dayglo"

hth.

I know what you mean, but there are lots of photos that show the aircraft finished in white over a number of years - so it was evidently only in the initial paint scheme (whatever it was!) for a very short period until it was painted white. I hope someone can get to the bottom of the story as it would be quite remarkable if it was indeed painted fluorescent orange - must have looked dazzling!

ORANGE CANBERRA
 

BEagle's photo brought back memories. 99+34 visited Warton in March 1991. Being a member of FTI, it was great to see a whole aircraft painted in our colour, Instrumentation Orange, (instead of just brackets, boxes and wires). International Orange, to give the paint its correct name, is the colour the Golden Gate Bridge is painted by the way.

Aargh, the brave and scary world of colours! Thing is, International Orange isn't orange, it's red :)

XH132
 

What was XH132’s original role?

The one-off PR9 Canberra XH132 was unlike any other PR9 because of the unusual nose configuration. My understanding is that XH132 was designed to sneak up behind Warsaw pact aircraft and record their infrared and radar signature. However, my information may be completely incorrect – so what was the aircraft's original role?

Heimdall

The recently published book, "Listening In" ISBN 9 781902 109381, contains considerable information about XH132 and its employment on Op Harpoon; the collection of IR data. This was succeeded by Project Zabra, a steerable system fitted to WT305.

YS

XH132's original role was a carry aircraft for the Red Top seeker. It then flew on various IR-related trials before Operation Harpoon. Later became the carry aircraft for the Skyflash hoimg head.

Listening In
 

My copy of 'Listening In' arrived in the post yesterday. Excellent book that details at length exactly what 51 Sqn got up to in the Cold War, as well as detailing XH132's various roles. Well worth a read for anyone with an interest in ELINT.

Heimdall

Does it indeed :suspect:

YS

Listening In
 

All right, exactly was probably the wrong word to use, however, as very little else has been published about 51 Sqn's activities, this book is a step in the right direction, particularly about Washington, Comet R1 and Canberra operations. The Warsaw Pact monitored the flight of these aircraft whenever they were near their borders, so I believe it's high time the veil of outdated secrecy was lifted on these particular operations, although I suspect those involved would completely disagree.

At some point in the future I assume a more detailed book describing Nimrod R1 operations will eventually be published and I look forward to reading it - perhaps Yellow Sun might like to contribute!!

Heimdall