English Electric Canberra

Book excerpt: This amazing airplane first flew in 1949, and as at 2005, is still in front-line service with the RAF. It has served in a variety of roles including those of medium conventional bomber, tactical nuclear bomber, photo-reconnaissance, night intruder, navigational trainer, maritime strike, electronic countermeasures, and atomic cloud sampling and target-towing. It was manufactured in the USA under license as the Martin B-57, and in Australia under license as the Canberra B-20. It has been exported to Argentina, Chile, France, Germany, India, Peru, Sweden, Venezuela, South Africa and other Commonwealth countries. This book looks at the development of the aircraft during the early days of jet power and especially at its Rolls-Royce Avon power-plant. It was Britain's first jet bomber. Each of the many marks and variants are described and illustrated by many remarkable and rare photographs. The type's record of service with RAF squadrons throughout its service life is given together with descriptions of the many experimental models that were used in the development of a variety of weapons and avionics systems.