RAAF Canberra Question

[ProudKerman]

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

Last edited by ProudKerman on Mon Aug 03, 2015 7:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[JohnB]

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

[ProudKerman]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

Okay thanks for your help though

[wardie]

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

[ProudKerman]

Asking Canberra owners was the next step thanks

[ErrolC]

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.