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Canberra PR9

I have just seen three Canberra PR9s flying in formation over my house.

I live not far from RAF Marham (in fact, I used to serve there a number of years ago), RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall (the latter two are USAFE bases) and so I'm used to seeing military aircraft.

There was an article a couple of weeks back in the local newspaper about 39 Sqn at Marham. They had just completed their final operational mission over Afghanistan and were preparing for disbandment. I reckon that those three Canberras that I've just seen are the last airworthy ones in the RAF. After hearing about all the problems that they have had with them over the last few years, I'm amazed that they managed to get three serviceable at once!

The Canberra PR9 is a strategic reconnaissance aircraft - the last one that the RAF has. It will be withdrawn without being replaced. There is a lot of that going around in the British armed forces these days. The Sea Harrier F/A2 has recently been withdrawn from service, to be replaced by the Harrier GR9. However, the GR9 has no radar and no offensive air-to-air capability and so British fleet units now have no in-depth air-defence. This situation will remain until the F-35 is brought into service in 2017. Did I say "until"? I meant "if". And it's a big "if".

Look at the situation with the Eurofighter Typhoon. The Typhoon was supposed to be in service by 1998. Eight years later and it is only just coming into squadron service. However the jet is so unreliable as to be operationally useless. So severe were the problems that the Operational Conversion Unit had to based at Warton, the manufacturer's airfield, for a year. Typhoon is now in service, but the maintainance man-hours required to keep the thing in the air are significantly higher than that required by the Jaguar, a 30 year old jet which the Typhoon has replaced. Add to that the problem that the Typhoon isn't yet cleared for the release of air-to-ground stores and we can see that it's not exactly a viable Jaguar replacement, is it?

I worry about the future of the British armed forces. In the meantime, it was nice to see some Canberras in flight - maybe for the last time. At least they were quiet! ;-)

Reply to
Enzo Matrix
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It is not just the British forces - look at the original build rates of the F-22 and JSF airframes and the Seawolf subs vs. what is now being discussed.

Reply to
Andrew M

That reminds me, I still have my Matchbox kit half-built. I would have liked to see the real ones myself. For awhile there I had a growing pile of Canberra kits as I've long fancied them. I almost tried talking my friend out of his Frog Mk.7 but decided to let him keep it. I can't have them all, at least without winning a lottery. ;)

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

Reply to
Mad-Modeller

I have one of those in my Deep Stash.

Reply to
Enzo Matrix

For sale, here:-

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Requires engine, pilot's seat and armaments to complete.

Canberras next?

(kim)

Reply to
kim

The blurb says "You are bidding on a decommissioned Royal Navy Sea Harrier which saw active service in the Falklands 1982."

Not in *that* form it didn't!

The wing assemblies are interchangeable between aircraft. In an attempt to reduce the fatigue life on many aircraft, during the mid 80s the wings of the whole Sea Harrier fleet were replaced with new-build assemblies. The old wing assemblies were transferred to the RAF to be used on the GR3 fleet. When the aircraft were converted to F/A2 standard, they had a plug inserted into the rear fuselage. The tails were not necessarily matched up to the fuselage from which they came!

It's like claiming that you have used the same yardbrush for the past 25 years, despite having changed the head three times and the shaft twice! :-D

Reply to
Enzo Matrix

So how much of the NRM's Flying Scotsman remains original? The driver's tea-caddy perhaps?

(kim)

Reply to
kim

LOL Just *don't* get me started on that! LNER livery and smoke deflectors?????? Puh-leeeeeez!

Reply to
Enzo Matrix

Ok, I have to ask, what exactly is a yardbrush?

Reply to
Ron Smith

LOL

It's a brush used for brushing your back yard. It has a a roughly rectangular head with stiff bristles mounted on a cylindrical shaft.

It also goes by the name "bass broom" but that name seems to get people even more confused. I can't win! ;-)

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Reply to
Enzo Matrix

Now you've gone and wrecked his excuse for not clearing the back yard!

(kim)

Reply to
kim

Enzo - you have to add that in the UK a "yard" is an enclosed, paved area (hence the big stiff bristles), attached to a building; you get little ones at the back of terraced housing and really big ones attached to (e.g.) factories.

In the USA (and Canada?) the yard is what we in the UK call "the garden".

So in the UK you can sweep the yard, but in N.A. you'd have a hard time sweeping all of "the yard".

If you have a really big yard, you need a big yard brush .. in fact I've seen 'em nearly a yard wide! :-P

John

Reply to
John

sheesh, the english worship their plants and wax the suckers!

Reply to
e

I sure wish Aero-Club had continued with it's proposed Canberra PR.9 kit. Sounds like they dropped the project when Airfix/Classic Airframes got into the act but I haven't seem a PR.9 yet. Aside from the Mk.2, there is only the target tug and the trainer/elint bird. Both colorful but of little historical interest to me.

Bill Shuey

Enzo Matrix wrote:

Reply to
William H. Shuey

Ah, a pushbroom!

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

Reply to
Mad-Modeller

Yup. Use it for three hours and you get a 8 by 12 four-bed room.

Reply to
Enzo Matrix

Enzo,

Er, another linguistic disconnect. That's Roger Miller

Three hours of pushin' broom Gets an 8 by 12 four-bit room

Ergo, the gentlemen earned 50 cents for a flophouse in that three hours. Cheap labor!

Cookie Sewell

Reply to
AMPSOne

No pool, no pets.

Reply to
NJE

Heyyyyy!! At last I understand those lines, after all these years! Thanks Cookie! (And I also now understand Enzo's reference)

Sorry about the way this thread of yours has gone so far off track Enzo. Still, it was about Recon planes, to start with...

John

Reply to
John

It was as much about defence cutbacks, a subject which is totally misunderstood by taxpayers and deliberately misrepresented by politicians.

(kim)

Reply to
kim

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