Warbird Information Exchange

One year at OSH in the late 1980s or early 1990s, seems like there was a Canberra bomber (British version) on the warbird line. Only it was US civil registered. What happened to it?

Mark H

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Owned by the guy that was indicted on weapons charges. - Steve...??? Can't remember last name now. Good question. I've google it ten times right now and can't find a thing.

Steven L. Picatti owned 2 of them. WK126 and A84-229. The latter being the one I believe visited OshKosh in 91 or 92...

One was in a hangar at Redding CA in 2001

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Are there any actively touring the airshow circuit in the UK or Australia at present?

I got to see one fly at the 1999 Duxford May Air Display and have a video of it. It was Gull Gray with Black undersides. It's been one of my favorite airplanes since I was a kid, since seeing the B-57 on display at the Bradley (NEAM) Air Museum in 1978-9. I liked the glass nosed bomber version. Kind of like a cross between WW2 and the jet age, prior to the switch to big fighters and tandem cockpits.

Pete

Just TODAY, the world's only flying British Canberra made it's debut following restoration by flying in for the RIAT show this weekend. It will be on static display for the weekend before flying back to its home. Hopefully we will see this unique vintage jet flying at other air shows in the UK and elsewhere in the next few years.

http://www.airtattoo.com/airshow/newsro ... ntre-stage

Other than the highly modified WB-57F variants flown by NASA, this is the only flying Canberra anywhere.

......outside Australia. http://www.aviationmuseum.com.au/aircra ... /canberra/

SORRY about that! Maybe the link I had was specifically referring to a "PR9" version of the Canberra as opposed to the "TT.18" version in Australia.

Maybe you Mike, or someone else can outline differences between the two for us.

Would love to see one or both of these Canberras in the air someday.

The version I saw at Duxford in '99 was a B.2 with the glass nose. I'll have to source my video and see if I can find who the owner/org was.

If they're the two in California, they're probably the ones owned by a local aerial mapping firm.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=47705&hilit=Canberra

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I know for sure NASA still flies at least one, I saw it last fall in the air outside of Houston...

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Yes, they do. It is often seen at Ellington.

The USAF (or some branch of the US Govt) has pulled another airframe (a B-57F, I think) out of the boneyard and is rebuilding it. A buddy's company has earned some bits and pieces of the work on it...

My show ticket for Temora in November is purchased, here's hoping!

Some experiences of Aussie Canberra testing pilot Noel Kruse can be heard here:
http://rnzaf.proboards.com/thread/19477 ... el-kruse-8
Noel's earlier interviews include talking about RAAF Sabres in Thailand during Robin Old's time. Plenty more great episodes on Dave Homewood's Wings Over NZ Show too.

The PR9 is very much a hot rod, with an enlarged wing, more powerful engines and a single-place fighter-style cockpit, and the navigator's position moved to the nose.

I do suspect, though, that the the earlier list of flying examples deliberately left off the example in Australia, due to them being rubbish at cricket!

The good news on surviving Canberras is that the PR9 in the UK made its first flight since being retired from service nearly a decade ago only yesterday morning, and was then ferried to Fairford for the airshow, where it will be on static display as already mentioned, the same afternoon.

My guess would be that it was the former altitude record holding WK163 (G-BVWC) owned by the Classic Flight, which was certainly on the airshow circuit in '99, and hopefully will be again soon after some years on the ground due to some technical issues.

It's a possibility it might also have been the a/c that is currently airworthy in Australia at Temora, (ex-WJ680) as this a/c was civvie owned/operated in the UK for a couple of years before being bought and ferried to Australia in 2001/2.

Edit: just checked, and it couldn't have been WJ680 as that didn't make it's first civvie flight until Jan 2000, and then spent most of 2000 on the ground at RAF Marham, so I'd say it was almost certainly WK163 you saw.