NASA WB 57's fly over

[frank williams]

Quite a site coming over the house yesterday.  NASA has three WB 57's, one newly added to the fleet after being in storage in Tucson, and they had them all flying yesterday.  These are the old RAF Canberra's.  NASA uses them for high alt. research, etc.  Big wing.  Lots of aluminum.

[john e. holliday]

Lucky you.

[Kreth]

They were built from B-57s built by Martin which was similar to the RAF design.  The longwing versions of which these are, were rebuilds or re-manufactured from the Martin units by General Dynamics.  I could look up the numbers and see which ones NASA has now.  One of the ones they have is originally tail #503 which we had at Rhein-Main AFB in Germany in 1967.




















r

[Randy Ryan]

They were built from B-57s built by Martin which was similar to the RAF design.  The longwing versions of which these are, were rebuilds or re-manufactured from the Martin units by General Dynamics.  I could look up the numbers and see which ones NASA has now.  One of the ones they have is originally tail #503 which we had at Rhein-Main AFB in Germany in 1967.


r

You beat me to it but I'll expand a bit. The English Electric Canberra was an all wood airframe. Martin built the B-57s. I crewed EB-57E's, these were equipped with tons of electronic countermeasure equipment and zero armament. The WB-57s were originally modifications for weather service, not sure if NASA uses them for that but probably. Little known was the RB-57 which had a huge stretched wing and was for high altitude reconnaissance.

The B-57 was really fighter like akin to a B-25. They were actually very aerobatic and maneuverable in their basic dress. Our squadron commander Col John Harris of the 4713DSES did some interesting maneuvers with a stripped out EB when we were deactivating that squadron. It was very impressive to see and I especially remember the snap roll over the runway, it was spectacular!!

In case you can't tell, I loved this aircraft, I also loved the F-106s I crewed after this and equally hated the B-52s I was forced onto later.


Here's and RB and an EB (A model)
Added a neat 3 view showing the standard wing and the RB wing

[frank williams]

When they come over the house it sounds like a thousand vacuum cleaners in the sky.

[Randy Ryan]

When they come over the house it sounds like a thousand vacuum cleaners in the sky.

I think they're probably converted to turbofans instead of the original J-57s

[goozgog]

Hi Randy,
            The English Electric Canberra was the immediate replacement for the
(almost) all wood DeHavilland Mosquito.
The Canberra always was all metal except for the leading edge of the vertical stab
on earlier copies.

  Remember that at the end of WWII Britain was a world leader in advanced
aircraft design thanks to their jet engines and a little help from friends and
recent enemies. There was a long and deep official distrust of wooden aircraft,
probably due to the almost tropical British climate. I can't imagine anyone ,
post war, seriously considering wasting a Rolls Royce Nene in a wooden airframe.

Cheers!  :-)

[Gerald Arana]

So who's going to be the first to make/design an electric twin ducted fan stunter of this airplane?  
Don't look at me, I have to many projects now.

Jerry

[David Russum]

Interesting.....do you have any pictures that show the tail numbers?  After VSC in 2010 I went on the boneyard tour and was surprised to see this in the refurbishment area.  Could be one of the planes you saw...

[Scott Richlen]

Look at Frank's second picture again.  It looks like they've got their bomb-bay doors open!

Down there in Texas defending the border?   

[wwwarbird]

 Way cool.

[Elwyn Aud]

The one recently refurbished had been in storage for decades. I wonder if it set a record for the length of time sitting in mothballed storage and then getting put back into active service? I thought I read somewhere that it was 41 years.

[Randy Ryan]

Hi Randy,
            The English Electric Canberra was the immediate replacement for the
(almost) all wood DeHavilland Mosquito.
The Canberra always was all metal except for the leading edge of the vertical stab
on earlier copies.

  Remember that at the end of WWII Britain was a world leader in advanced
aircraft design thanks to their jet engines and a little help from friends and
recent enemies. There was a long and deep official distrust of wooden aircraft,
probably due to the almost tropical British climate. I can't imagine anyone ,
post war, seriously considering wasting a Rolls Royce Nene in a wooden airframe.

Cheers!  :-)

Hi Keith, I stand corrected, thanks

[goozgog]

Hi Randy,
              Sorry if it seemed like I was correcting you.
It's all about keeping the history straight.
Since you actually worked on B-57's I'm sure you know
more than I do. Thanks for being gracious.

  Just for fun , can anyone identify this Cold Warrior?

[Elwyn Aud]

Looks like a CF-100 Canuck. One of it's nicknames was Zilch.

[goozgog]

You got it Elwyn.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_CF-100_Canuck


  When I first saw one of these on a plinth, I thought it was
a Canberra until I had a second look.
  It's interesting that a tiny country like Canada had the resources
to develop it's own fighter. Now it takes an international consortium
to do anything.
Much more sophisticated now, of course.

Cheers! - K.

[Steve Thomas]

  It's interesting that a tiny country like Canada had the resources
to develop it's own fighter. Now it takes an international consortium
to do anything.

Even more impressive was the CF-105, even if it never went into production.


Sweden has done pretty well, too, with the Draken, Viggen and Gripen. Their population is under 10 million, not even a third of Canada's.

[rustler]

..these were equipped with tons of electronic countermeasure equipment..

errr.. might they be any good (just what we now require?) for our anti-submarine surveillance?
Our government scrapped our last effort before it even got in the air. 
Now we find we need it!

[Balsa Butcher]

Probably lots of surplus Lockheed P-3 Orions stored at Tucson. With updated electronics would still be a viable and well proven anti-submarine platform. Many are still in service. Might suggest it the next time you have lunch with the Prime Minister.   As far as wooden jets go, didn't the DeHaviland Vampire have a wooden pilots compartment? I seem to remember the nose at least being made of wood.This would make sense since they also made the Mosquito.