Some old photo's

[TarJak]

I've been going through my late father's photo and slide collection trying to digitise, catalogue and generally sort them out so they never get lost. In doing so I came across these which he took in 1956. I thought I'd share the contact scan I did with you lot and also ask if anyone can tell me if they know anything about one of the aircraft in them.

I know the date and I know where he took them. I know that they are of a RAF Vulcan bomber XA897 and a Canberra bomber W??92 both of which went on a world tour. The Vulcan later crashed in poor weather at London airport on it's return.

I can't work out the rego of the Canberra and can find no mention of it accompanying the Vulcan on the world tour. Both were definately parked at Mascot airport in Sydney on the same date according to the data my father wrote on the back of the photo's.

Does anyone have any idea what the rego of the Canberra bomber is and whether it accomanied the Vulcan on the entire round the world trip or did it just fly down from the RAF/RAAF base Butterworth in Malaya?

[Linton]

Try asking the question over at pprune.They have a history section:
http://www.pprune.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=86

Of the top of my head was it something to do with an air race?

[geetrue]

I've never seen a cross on a military plane before ...

[Sailor Steve]

Ooh, Vulcan! Gets my vote for 'Prettiest bomber of the cold war.'


Ooh, Canberra! When Martin got the contract to build them for the USAF as the B-57, they kept the name. Pilots took to calling it the "Iron Cranberry".

[Linton]

The cross is the emblem of the City of Lincoln.There is a Canberra aircraft at the RAF museum at Hendon that took part in an air race but it is not this one.The Vulcan was on a show the flag tour.I suppose the Canberra was part of this as is the Hastings in the background.

[bookworm_020]

Found the answer!

http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-...m/canberra.htm

It was a British Canberra that was lent to Australia for training, with was allocated an RAAF No. but it was never used!

Was it around 1953 when the photo was taken???

[nikimcbee]

thanks for sharing.

[TarJak]

Originally Posted by bookworm_020

Found the answer!

http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-...m/canberra.htm

It was a British Canberra that was lent to Australia for training, with was allocated an RAAF No. but it was never used!

Was it around 1953 when the photo was taken???

No he took the photos in 1956, the same year that the Vulcan visited. Thanks for looking anyway. I'm asking over at pprune to see what they can tell me.

[FIREWALL]

Nice Pics Tarjak

[HunterICX]

Ow Boy Planes!

pretty planes! thanks for sharing

HunterICX

[TarJak]

Thanks Linton for the tip. I found a pilot who was baby sitting the backup Vulcan back in the UK whilst this one was over here in OZ.

When the moderators over there clear the rest of my reply posts (), then you'll be able to see the hi res scans of the Vulcan plus some detail zooms I've done of the Canberra to help ID the plane here. http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=315224

I've now got the rego number WH797 which looks like it was a PR Mk7 variant that was built by English Electric at Preston as a PR.7 and saw RAF service with Nos. 542, 58 and 81 Squadrons.
Chosen as one of the PR.7's for use with the Navy it was taken on Navy charge in February 1971.
It was then converted and designated as a T.22. She was transferred to the FRADU and served with them for over ten years, Retired in February 1985 and flown to RAF St Athan for storage it remained there for six years.

So my real question now becomes what was it doing here in 1956? I can only assume that it was here to photograph the Vulcan on it's trip but being the slow old beast they were compared to the Vulcan there is no way it could have made the entire trip with the Vulcan which I understand did the trip from the UK non-stop!

[mrbeast]

The Vulcan is an amazing aircraft. I had the pleasure of seeing one once at the Manchester Airshow (don't think they put it on anymore) about 19 or 18 years ago. Seeing one of them flying was one of the most breathtaking things I've ever whitnessed, it was like a giant bird of prey. Was just about the loudest thing I've ever heard too. The ground was literally shaking as it went overhead.

They don't make planes like that anymore.

[TarJak]

They certainly don't. Although there are still some very impressive birds about now as well.

Thanks again Linton, the guys at pprune came through with quite a bit of info that I didn't have I now have an exact date for the photo's as well as some info on who owned the Canberra and where it was likely to have flown from:

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showpos...21&postcount=6

[JSLTIGER]

The Vulcan bombers could scare the **** out of you just from their looks.

[Linton]

I was glad to be of help.When I was a child I used to live near RAF Saint Athan.This maintenance base used to do work on Vulcans.They used to take them on a post maintenance shakedown before releasing them back to the squadron.This invariably meant a full power take-off in an almost empty aeroplane.The noise had to be heard to be believed!!!