During World War II a novel idea was born; a bomber which would not carry any defensive armament but rather rely on raw speed to outrun any enemy aircraft. That aircraft was the De Havilland Mosquito.

In 1944 the British Air Ministry put out calls for a replacement using the then newly emerging jet technology. In May 1949, the first English Electric [1] Canberra took to the sky. In May 1951 it became the RAF's first jet powered bomber.

For a time, it could fly higher than any other aircraft, setting a then record of 70,310 feet in 1957.

The Canberra became vulnerable by the end of the 1950s with the introduction of new Soviet surface to air missiles, but that didn't stop the Canberra from still being useful in many roles. In fact, it went on to become the RAF's longest serving aircraft serving for just over 55 years from May 1951 to June 2006.

Indeed it had such a good reputation that it found many export markets as well. Its first export customer was Australia which, reportedly, is how it acquired the name Canberra in honour of that relationship.

There were more versions of the Canberra than you could shake a proverbial stick at. A couple of the more important ones were the B-57, built for American use under licence by the Martin aircraft company (now part of Lockheed Martin) in the 1950s, and more importantly for this story, the Canberra B.20 which was a licenced version of the Canberra B.2 built under licence by the Government Aircraft Factories (GAF) in Fisherman's Bend, Victoria, Australia. The main modification to the B.2 was additional fuel tanks in the wings.

Which makes the specs of the B.2 worth a look. That was the first production model (the B.1 being prototypes). The original design had a crew of two, but a bomb aimer needed to be added. It had twin Rolls Royce Avon turbojet engines, producing 28.91 kN of thrust.

An RAAF document that I found detailing the Canberra's history mentions that some were fitted with the Mk 109 Avon which could generate 33.3 kN.

The design is rather squarish since the mid mounted wingspan (19.51m, 64') roughly equals the length (19.96m, 65' 6"). The wing area is 89 sq m (960 sq ft), and the loaded weight (of the B.20( was 50,000lb (22,680 kg). Its maximum speed was 500 knots (930 km/h, 580mph) at 40,000 feet, and it had a ceiling of 48,000' and a range of 1,300km. (With the extra fuel tanks the B.20 could do 1,822km (1,132 miles) with a normal (4,500lb) bomb load, or 5,841km in ferry mode.)

The Australian Canberras served with 2 (1953), 6 (1955) and 1 (1958) squadrons (in chronological order) of the RAAF. 2 Squadron was deployed to Vietnam between April 1967 and June 1971, and acquitted themselves well despite flying a bomber that some regarded as being obsolete by then.

In fact 2 Squadron were the last to relinquish their Canberras, well beyond their intended replacement date, on 30 June 1982.

Though that was not their last flight, and it's worth bearing that date in mind when looking at image 30397.

This is A84-230. It was built in 1955, and taken on strength with the RAAF on 27 January 1956. I can't confirm that it really was with 2 Squadron, but I know that A84-231 was (I saw a picture of it on a bombing run with 2 Squadron in Vietnam), as well as A84-240, so the odds seem good. Around 1972 it was modified for cartographic missions, before being sent to the Museum in November 1983. But we'll come back to that.

If you're wondering what happened to 2 Squadron after it gave up its Canberras, the bad news... it was disbanded. The good news, it was reformed in January 2000, but in a very different role; it's now operating Boeing 737 Early Warning and Control aircraft out of RAAF Williamtown near Newcastle, New South Wales.

The aircraft in front is a Macchi trainer, but we'll talk about that later.

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[1] Yes, "English Electric" made aircraft, initially just under contract from "real" aircraft designers. It also made tanks, locomotives, submarines and power generation equipment. It's a long story.



Addendum: My personal opinion is that Facebook is a sociopathic organisation that steals other peoples' intellectual property (including the images in this gallery) despite being explicitly denied permission to do so.