English Electric Canberra
The Canberra
“The bomber that flew so high nobody could touch it.”
English Electric · military
The Canberra was Britain's first jet bomber and was so good the US Air Force bought it too, building it as the Martin B-57. It could fly above 48,000 feet, beyond the reach of fighters of its day, and the RAF kept it in service for 55 years, retiring the last photo-reconnaissance PR.9s in 2006. A couple of restored examples still fly, and NASA's WB-57s are Canberras underneath.
In February 1951 a Canberra became the first jet to cross the Atlantic without refuelling, flying from Northern Ireland to Newfoundland in four and a half hours.
A broad, almost straight wing with the two engines buried in it halfway out, a short fuselage and a tall tail. Looks like a flying wing with a fin from below.
One might be overhead right now.
Bogey turns the The Canberra from a dot in the sky into a card in your logbook.
