Warbird Information Exchange

These aircraft flew in, but have been sitting on the ramp for approximately 8 years now. The Canberra has some ramp rash but I think it wouldn't be all that hard to make a nice static display, and as it flew in, a flying restoration is certainly possible as well. Would be a darn shame if these planes go to the scrappers... there are not many Canberras on this side of the pond!

These aircraft can be viewed from the parking lot just west of the main terminal at Melbourne International Airport (MLB) near FIT aviation.

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(From the Melbourne Area Pilots Assn. newsletter)

Warbirds for sale
Elbow grease and TLC necessary

Are you interested in a relatively inexpensive jet trainer or twinjet 1950s
era bomber? Here is your chance. One is a BAC Provost Mark 5A, N316HC and the other a Canberra TT.18, N77844. The English borne Canberra and its variations served countries the world over. Built in the US by Martin as the B-57 and RB-57, they saw service into the '90s. It is still in use with NASA for high altitude work. On July 29 there will be an auction of the two aircraft that have been parked at the old FIT Aviation ramp for years. This is a competitive bid, cash only sale. Aircraft are sold "as-is, where is" and must be moved in 48 hours. At last inspection, both appear to be in need of a great deal of TLC. The sale will be in the Government Center in Titusville and begin at 11: AM.

FMI:
www.floridatoday.com/legal
www.brevardcounty.gov

I would dearly love to see another Canberra in the air somewhere i the world. It was such a groundbreaking aircraft, flew in many conflicts, had a service life of 50+ years (the RAF only recently having retired their PR.9's.) A truly wonderful aircraft. Are any still in service anywhere in the world? What about the NASA examples and any in the States? Anyone any pics?

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If the first casualty of war is innocence, the second is sobriety - Hawkeye.
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws - Plato.
Lies get halfway round the world before the truth has a chance to get it's pants on - Churchill
If you are going through he11 - keep going - Churchill

I remember seeing a privately owned one at Oshkosh one year (a long time ago).

Merlin...Don't even PRETEND you didn't know what the outcome of this poll would be.

Mudge the suspicious

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Land of the free because of the brave

LOL Mudge... personally I'm pulling for the Yellow Submarine

Man, it's sad that they didn't provide more notice to find potential buyers... anyone with the resources and interest is probably up in Oshkosh this week. We'll see... hope we can find out who buys it (if anyone).

I assume this is Steve Picatti's Canberra?

Rich

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Rich Kolasa
www.crystalgraphix.com

These planes used to belong to a company called AeroGroup, which I believe no longer exists. Around 2002, they were contracted to host a squadron of about 16 Dutch F-16s for a couple weeks, hundreds of people packed the city council meeting carrying torches and pitchforks (almost as many supported them, the pilots and their families pumped tens of thousands of dollars into the local economy each day) but the since-disgraced/expelled airport director at the time kicked them out. When they left, these two planes remained behind. They've slowly rotted away on the ramp ever since, I suppose that they finally were repossessed to pay off delinquent tie-down fees. I know that FIT has wanted to get them off their ramp for many years now.

Not long before it stopped being flown, this Canberra was once used to do test drops some kind of substance into clouds, which caused them to dissipate... the idea being to reduce the strength of a hurricane before it hit. I don't think they ever got farther than dissipating a few small cumulus clouds though.