Vulcan to the Sky Trust to return Canberra WK163 to display flight
 

Vulcan To The Sky - Latest Press Release


https://mxm.mxmfb.com/rsps/m/Bu3Hf0Y...LfkFJ__wFE5Mzo

http://www.vulcantothesky.org/upload...ight%20(2).pdf


"Record-breaking English Electric Canberra to be returned to flight


The team that returned Vulcan XH558 to flight is to return another iconic all-British jet to the airshow circuit

One of Britain’s most important jet-age aircraft is to be returned to flight. English Electric Canberra WK163 spent most of her life playing a central role in the development of advanced propulsion technologies followed by a period with the Royal RADAR Establishment, at the heart of British scientific and engineering innovation. In 1957, she shot into the headlines around the world when a prototype Napier Double Scorpion rocket motor fired her to 70,310 ft and a new world altitude record.

“WK163 was a celebrity even amongst the research aircraft,” said one senior engineer who worked on world-leading secret research programmes at the Ministry of Aviation. “She flew to the edge of space. It was an astonishing achievement.”

Since her final flight in 2007, this famous aircraft, with ‘holder of the world altitude record’ proudly written on her nose, has faced an uncertain future. Now she is to be restored and returned to the airshow circuit with the aim of helping to celebrate the centenary of the RAF in 2018. The restoration will be undertaken by Vulcan to the Sky Trust, the award-winning charity responsible for the restoration and operation of Vulcan XH558.

“WK163 embodies so much that is remarkable about British courage and innovation in the Jet Age; qualities that she can continue to inspire in us all,” states Dr. Robert Pleming, who led the team that returned XH558 to flight and is now chief executive of Vulcan to the Sky Trust. “I am thrilled to announce that the Trust plans to restore and fly WK163 for the British public, as we did with Vulcan XH558, with an education programme around her to inspire new generations of engineers and aviators.”

Entering service in 1951, the Canberra was the RAF’s first jet bomber, the answer to a 1944 Air Ministry requirement for a high-speed, high-altitude aircraft to replace the de Havilland Mosquito. It was the first aircraft to be powered by the new Rolls-Royce Avon, the company’s first axial flow jet turbine, a configuration that greatly improved fuel efficiency and is still at the heart of jet engine design to this day. This pioneering engine allowed a Canberra to become the first jet to cross the Atlantic without refuelling (in 1951), and gave the de Havilland Comet sufficient range to inaugurate the world’s first no-stop transatlantic jet airliner service in 1958.

The all-British Canberra was so effective that they were operated by at least 17 nations including France, Germany, Australia and the USA. Demand outstripped production capacity at English Electric (later to make the astonishing Lightning, building on Canberra and Avon experience), so many Canberras were constructed by other companies under licence. WK163 was built in 1954 by Avro at Woodford, at the same facility that built Vulcan XH558.

The Americans admired the Canberra so much that they also built a significant number. They can fly so high for so long that NASA still uses three US-built Canberras for satellite development. Sadly, today, there are only five Canberras known to be flying in the world, including the three highly modified, US-built aircraft at NASA. Only two of these are English Electric Canberras and currently, none are flying in Europe."

Great news, until the Campaign Against Aviation seeks to ground it

Is that the rattling of a money box I hear....?? :p

I guess Doc Pleming is realising he needs another source of income to fund his retirement ?

Surely not

Hmmmmm.........

I wonder what makes them more confident about finding a suitable engine than Classic Flight, who IIRC, gave up trying to source one, which is why it never flew again after the engine failure in 2006....??

Waiting for the begging letters. Already had the email appeal.

I read on another thread that they actually claim to have 6 Engines (Avon 100s) all with the correct paperwork to allow them to be used for flight.

All the struggles Atlantic had getting a replacement engine with valid paperwork for it in 2006/7 seem to have been got round....really?.

Reminds me when, at Cotty on the Argosy, one of our guys used to refer to them as 'Avon-engined Ansons' :E

Now I would like to see an Annie flying. Lots of variants so you could get an interesting one airborne in UK.

There are already two Ansons flying in the UK, they've flown together at Old Warden in the recent past

Is this the current max-cynicism thread? I for one wish them luck.

Mike, TY, Wiki is wrong then.

Yup and I sent them a message telling them what they could do with it.

Now if they were to get a Whistling Tit flying......that I would subscribe to.

Good luck with the Canberra project ... spent my first 2 ATC tours telling them what to do.

I just hope they get some asymmetric practice done before they start displaying.

I remember WK163 at Bruntingthorpe in the 90s, would be nice to see flying after all these years. Time will tell if there's the public interest to fund it to the same tune as the Vulcan. Maybe VTTS are hedging their bets, Mossie for the WWII piston enthusiasts and another Cold War bomber for the jet enthusiasts.

To hell with the grumbling naysayers - if VTST can return the Canberra to the skies, then the very best of luck to them.

I would like to see some evidence of discussions with the CAA before deciding whether the project is worth supporting financially though.

In what regard....?

CAA don't have an issue with the Canberra?

It's not in complex category, and this very example was display flying with Classic Flight for 4 years between 2002-2006 before the engine failure.

MidAir was operating the PR.9 OK for a couple of seasons until recently when they went tits-up. Such a shame that a buyer for that can't be found. Don't understand why VTTS just didn't buy that, it's ready to go and fly now it was half the price of the what they say it's going to cost to return WK to the air......:rolleyes:

A memory stirred - as a kid managed one year to persuade the parents to take me to Farnborough. WK163 was flying and turned away from the crowd and had the rockets going - deafened my Mother for a week.

Is the Canberra less complicated than the Hunter? I recall a Naval officer whose background was helicopters being offered appointment as last OC360. "But I am a chopper pilot" quoth he. "No problem - 70 hours on Hunters, like half a Canberra, and then convert to the Canberra." And he did just that.

The quoted £100k is NOT to return it to the air, merely to buy it, ship it to Doncaster and take it to pieces and decide what needs doing to it next. You be assured that it will take many, many times that amount to complete the restoration. I understand that its condition has suffered considerably from its aborted restoration and subsequent time parked out in the elements at Coventry. VTTS have a successful business model which involves continued funding rounds for a project that is always described as being on the brink of collapse unless, in the immortal words of Bob Geldof, you just "give us your ****ing money" - WK163 fits that model perfectly, doubtless with plenty of dramas to come, unlike XH134.

XH134, being a Canberra PR9, has powered flying controls on the ailerons and rudder. These systems are irreversible with no mechanical reversion so, in the highly unlikely event of a total hydraulics failure, the PR9 is unflyable. Unfortunately that probably puts XH134 in a category the CAA label as 'Complex'.

Every other mark of Canberra will have manual flying controls throughout and is therefore categorised as 'Intermediate'.

Fair play to them. But I'd much rather see a Lightning or Buccaneer back in flight.

Surely then MidAir/C2Aviation would never have got XH134 back in the air under CAA regs as we know the Vulcan has been (and likely only ever be) the only 'complex' jet operated on a PtF, and MidAir flew XH134 for at least 12 months on the display circuit in 2013-4.

???

For as much regard as I personally have for the Canberra, I'm afraid it just doesn't have the 'wow-factor' - no matter
how well credentialled that particular airframe might be.
Then, as Mr Peacock mentioned above, it's a PR.9 with no manual reversion.
Give WK163 a nice polish, a touch of paint and display it in a museum, where it properly belongs.

I really don't think the VVTS have properly done their homework.


Anyway, if you're going to go to all that trouble and expense, better to get a Lightning up and flying on the display circuit.
South Africa have done it.
More chance of getting the punters (sorry, enthusiasts) to part with their pounds, I think.
.

:ugh:

No.....VTTS have acquired the non-airworthy ex-Classic Flight B.2 WK163, the PR.9 WH134 is the one owned by MidAir and currently up for sale.

Quite right.
Thank you for the correction. :ok:

Anyway, the basis of my post remains.

Vulcan=Wow!, Canberra = yawn! Good luck anyway.

Pontius

re:Anson, Wiki is definitely wrong.

BAE Systems owns a C.19, G-AHKX, which is maintained and flown out of Old Warden, while another Mk.19, G-VROE, is owned by Air Atlantique/Classic Air Force/insert name here and flies in post war RAF training colours.

And they both look absolutely splendid!

Martin

Except that CAF at Coventry has ceased flying and is looking to sell all the fleet, hence the Canberra going to VttS

V1

Don't the Vulcan pilots and the 'charity' staff take a sizeable salary for themselves...?

When i heard that, it put me off donating. It's paying for an Old Boy's flying club.

VTTS need an un-airworthy airframe with all the associated costs and labour to fund a return to flight to support the team they have assembled. A ready to fly Canberra would not generate the work and funds to support their business model

Exactly.

I'm afraid I take everything that VTTS claim with a pinch of salt.

I dare say they do indeed have 6 x Avons, as a package with WK163, but to claim they are flight capable is hardly true, given the fact that CF/AA trawled the globe for some after the FOD damage.

This is from a new snippet posted by them elsewhere on the net back in 2012.

"From Steve Bridgewater at CAT/Airbase.

'Currently on “ a slow boat from California ” is a Rolls Royce Avon 109 engine that we are hoping and praying will be serviceable and allow Canberra WK163 to take to the skies once again!

As you are probably well aware the team has been working long and hard to source a replacement engine after WK163 suffered FOD ingestion on take-off from Coventry a few years ago. We have literally scoured the globe and explored numerous leads of inquiry but, until now, have drawn a blank.

However, we now seem to have sourced an engine which, on first inspection, looks useable. The paperwork (normally the major stumbling block) looks OK and the engine is inhibited. It is now en route to us for a full inspection and testing and, if all is well, we will aim to purchase it and install it in WK163.

There are, in fact, a couple of engines from the same source and if funds can be secured we will try to acquire at least one spare as well. '

Sadly, when that Avon 109 arrived at Coventry it was found it had sustained damage beyond repair during transit, and so, that's why WK163 has remained on the ground ever since.

Back in '57 I was a ten-year-old, living in Oz. Already becoming an aviation nut, I missed hearing of the altitude record. Wiki isn't much help. Can anyone point me to more information on this please?

It might be a wow; if they install the rocket motor again! :E

I would hope they go for the classic clean wing, black and grey look.

WK163 Archives - This Day in Aviation

https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarch...0-%201291.html

A small amount here: THE ENGLISH ELECTRIC CANBERRA but a bit of you know what with this info might throw up something.

Ah, belay that. Archimedes has the better link.


'a