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No. 100 Squadron English Electric Canberra TT.18 performs an aerial display over Temora last year. (Defence, LACW Kate Czerny)
No. 100 Squadron English Electric Canberra TT.18 performs an aerial display over Temora last year. (Defence, LACW Kate Czerny)
Inside the Archive #12 | The English Electric Canberra
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The English Electric Canberra was a British-designed fighter jet first introduced to the RAAF in 1953. Australia ordered 48, built at the Government Aircraft Factory in Melbourne, and operated by No. 1, No. 2 and No. 6 squadrons. In honour of Australia being the English Electric aircraft’s first export customer, then Prime Minister Robert Menzies named the plane ‘Canberra’.
The aircraft itself is an all-metal, semi-monocoque construction with a cantilevered wing and a wooden vertical stabiliser. The Canberra could fly at a higher altitude than any other bomber throughout the 1950s, and its range rivalled the best. The aircraft set a world altitude record of 70,310ft in 1957. Its ability to evade the early jet interceptors and its significant performance advancement over contemporary piston-engined bombers made the Canberra a famous export.
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Robert Brooks
says:My understanding is that the Canberra was a bomber. At my first visit to an air display at Hucknall, near Nottingham, at the time a testing centre for Rolls Royce, as we approached an aircraft appeared as though from nowhere and went vertical for thousands of feet – most impressive.