RAAF Canberra Question

ProudKerman · **Posted:** Thu Jul 30, 2015 9:13 pm

I have a couple of questions for you guys anything will help.
Firstly is it possible to open the bomb bay doors of a Canberra bomber from the outside and if not how would one manually open the doors?
Secondly can the bay be accessed from the cockpit or is there a wall sepearting the bay with the front of the aircraft?
If there are any Canberra experts (RAAF) out there it would be awesome if you could chuck me a quick PM.

Thanks

JohnB · **Posted:** Fri Jul 31, 2015 5:08 am

Have you asked on the FlyPast Forum?
They're specialists in UK types...and have a few ex-service members who might know.

ProudKerman · **Posted:** Sun Aug 02, 2015 2:30 am

Been referred to there a fair bit. I am having problems posting of commenting on the forum. It says I am a registered user but whenever I try and post i get this message.

ProudKerman, you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:

Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.

Have tried emailing them but no reply might have to try again.

Obergrafeter · **Posted:** Sun Aug 02, 2015 12:36 pm

Didn't the Canberra have a rotating bomb bay, ie. no doors? I had a ground door dolly I donated to the Martin Museum.

JohnB · **Posted:** Sun Aug 02, 2015 12:59 pm

Obergrafeter wrote:

Didn't the Canberra have a rotating bomb bay, ie. no doors? I had a ground door dolly I donated to the Martin Museum.

That was a change to the Martin-built B-57. Another reason why I suggested the OP go to FlyPast....a USAF vet won't be much help on UK-style bomb bay doors.

BAJ · **Joined:** Wed Jan 25, 2012 3:14 pm **Posts:** 126

Obergrafeter wrote:

Didn't the Canberra have a rotating bomb bay, ie. no doors? I had a ground door dolly I donated to the Martin Museum.

No the RAAF Canberras had conventional opening doors with the rotating doors being on the Glen Martin built B57 for the USAF.

Our T4 Canberra at HARS (Ex RAF WT 492 Ex RAAF A84 502) to the best of my knowledge has no access door to the bomb bay with a substantial bulkhead separating the bomb bay and cockpit.

ProudKerman · **Posted:** Wed Aug 05, 2015 2:59 am

Does HARS have any plans to get her airworthy?
So do you know how to get into the bomb bay and will the doors hold open manually like a bonnet in you get what I mean?

BAJ · **Joined:** Wed Jan 25, 2012 3:14 pm **Posts:** 126

We have no plans for airworthy as the airframe was pretty well shoot when we 1st got it.

Externally it looks great as does the cockpit .

Our bomb bay doors are displayed open but cant help you on how they were opened by ground crew.

ProudKerman · **Posted:** Thu Aug 06, 2015 11:58 pm

Okay thanks for your help though

wardie · **Posted:** Fri Aug 07, 2015 5:58 am

Have you tried making contact with Temora Aviation Museum? Their engineering dept should have all the details you need.

ProudKerman · **Posted:** Sat Aug 08, 2015 3:57 am

Asking Canberra owners was the next step thanks

ErrolC · **Posted:** Sat Aug 08, 2015 5:04 am

ProudKerman wrote:

Been referred to there a fair bit. I am having problems posting of commenting on the forum. It says I am a registered user but whenever I try and post i get this message.

ProudKerman, you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:

Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.

Have tried emailing them but no reply might have to try again.

Try Wings Over New Zealand also - might be some ex-Canberra crew there, certainly ex-Skyhawk ground crew RNZAF Museum docents.

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RAAF Canberra Question

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