16 June 2010

The Canberra returns in model form.

| johnboy
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For nearly 60 years the Canberra bomber reigned death on a vast cross section of the nations of the world: English, Eritreans, Vietnamese, Egyptians, Indians, Pakistanis, Koreans, Malays, Somalis, Zambians, Angolans, Rhodesians, South Africans, Bangladeshis, Portugese and Ecuadorians all ended up on the receiving end of the remarkable plane named after our city.

But the last of them have been retired in recent years.

Fortunately the model makers are hard at work keeping the memory alive. Check out the video of this American beast posted by “zantenvan” with the following note:

Maiden flight, a bit tail heavy. Next flight will be better Weight 55 lb Span ten feet power P120 Turbines

Video of model planes is usually balls. But it appears that size does matter.

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troll-sniffer9:56 pm 16 Jun 10

Well I had a look at the Martin B57 Canberra and I stand by my original reply in all but the canopy. The model is too short and stumpy and the tail is just plain wrong.

The Temora Aviation Museum has a Canberra bomber in flying condition: http://aviationmuseum.com.au/aircraft/Canberra.cfm

Gungahlin Al5:24 pm 16 Jun 10

With 11 variants in the US alone, and the British models, it is no surprise that you’re both wrong, and both right.
Semantics aside, what about the achievement of a remote control model with dual jet engines? Outstanding!

Captain RAAF said :

Like I said, it aint a Canberra. It’s a Martin B-57, built by the US but derived from the English General-Electric Canberra.

See, that seems to be where the confusion comes from. It appears that the Americans called their (substantially different variant) the B-57 Canberra.

Captain RAAF4:10 pm 16 Jun 10

p1 said :

troll-sniffer said :

Fancy putting all that work into a model of a Canberra Bomber and not even getting the dimensions right. It’s too stumpy, the cockpit is way too big and too far back and the tail is entirely the wrong size and shape.

While a comparison makes it clear that there are differences between this model and a Canberra Bomber, I’m thinking they may be in the interests of making it functional at that scale. Although, I also notice it has USAF markings, which is odd as they only ever operated two of them (according to Wikipedia anyway), making it an odd choice for an enthusiast (but yanks are pretty odd). Seems, as Mr Sniffer suggested, that it would be a lot of work to go to and get it wrong for no reason.

Like I said, it aint a Canberra. It’s a Martin B-57, built by the US but derived from the English General-Electric Canberra.

Main difference is the US aircraft had cockpit canopies that were hinged at the rear whereas the Canberra’s in the RAAF had fixed canopies (and they were quite small in comparison). The US did operate some early model B-57’s that very closely resembled the Canberra but that model above is one of the later ones that the yanks would have used in Nam.

Civvies! (rolls eyes)

troll-sniffer said :

Fancy putting all that work into a model of a Canberra Bomber and not even getting the dimensions right. It’s too stumpy, the cockpit is way too big and too far back and the tail is entirely the wrong size and shape.

While a comparison makes it clear that there are differences between this model and a Canberra Bomber, I’m thinking they may be in the interests of making it functional at that scale. Although, I also notice it has USAF markings, which is odd as they only ever operated two of them (according to Wikipedia anyway), making it an odd choice for an enthusiast (but yanks are pretty odd). Seems, as Mr Sniffer suggested, that it would be a lot of work to go to and get it wrong for no reason.

Captain RAAF3:34 pm 16 Jun 10

Probably because that aint no Canberra Bomber!

troll-sniffer2:39 pm 16 Jun 10

Fancy putting all that work into a model of a Canberra Bomber and not even getting the dimensions right. It’s too stumpy, the cockpit is way too big and too far back and the tail is entirely the wrong size and shape.

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