Did anyone see an english electric canberra fly over crookes area today about 10.00am.A very rare sight indeed.

I thought you meant the ship at first she had English Electric Engines, that would be a first, a flying ship:D

Is that what it was? Thought it was a low flying Jet fighter thingy?:D

Originally posted by grenolad
Did anyone see an english electric canberra fly over crookes area today about 10.00am.A very rare sight indeed.

Cruising majestically up the Don ??:heyhey:

Originally posted by sjw1705
Is that what it was? Thought it was a low flying Jet fighter thingy?:D i think they were bombers originally and the design goes back to the mid forties

Yea, they were designed as bombers but they were so fast, agile and stable that they ended up doing all sorts of things. They ended up with bagfuls of records and achievements.

The last ones in service are the PR9's (http://news.mod.uk/news/press/news_headline_story.asp?newsItem_id=3478) that do photo reconnaissance and a T4 trainer (http://www.airsceneuk.org.uk/hangar/2005/t4/t4.htm). They can see the smile on your face from 10 miles away, and people taking tea on the roof of the Houses of Parliament whilst flying above Heathrow - stunning! Even today the Americans have nothing as good. Not bad for a 60 year old plane :)

The last ones retire this year, so it's the end of an era for that lovely old classic plane. :(

Mind you, they delayed the retirement because they've been sent out to Iraq again, so they must still be doing something useful that nobody else can do. :)

I wish I had seen it, I worked on PR 7's for about 5 years in Singapore during the 60's. 81 Sqadron the only PR Squadron to have operated from Russsia during WW 2.
Took this at Coventry a few years back,the pilot must have known as he banked at exactly the right time !
http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/album_photo.html?c_photo=44714441

That's really interesting! Do you know why it was going over us? Was it heading to a display/new home or something?

One of the most impressive sights ive seen,was a few years ago at RAF Waddington.In amongst the displays of the latest,multi-million dollar jet fighters,doing low,high subsonic passes,the Canberra display was slated as a bit of a "time filler".

After a few run of the mill passes,the pilot in the Canberra(accompanied as I recall by a Vampire)pulled the nose of the aircraft up into an almost vertical climb.It may well have been an old aircraft,but no other plane that day drew as many gasps from the crowd,as the sight of that twin engine bomber screaming skyward like a homesick angel:D

A quick Google search reveals a site that tells you (almost) everything you need to know about the Canberra (apart from what one was doing flying over Crookes, and where it was going!)

Canberra site (http://www.bywat.co.uk/canframes.html)