Canterbury Bomber ?

[dougreed]

I took a photo of a very high altitude aircraft. Someone told me it was a canterbury bomber, what is it? I know it's not of WWII vintage... thanks, doug-<dougerdo1@yahoo.com> P.S. what aircraft looks (exactly!) like a B-17 but with only 2 engines? I saw one at a small airport in Arizona back in 1980, very odd. No it wasn't just missing it's engines! it looked to be flight ready as a duster or fire suppressor...

[R Pope]

Your high-flyer is a Martin RB-57 Canberra. It has much longer wings than the regular Canberra, and two added engines out on the wings. Cool photo!

[R Pope]

I dug up some info on your picture in my library. It's an RB-57F , one of 21 converted from standard B-57's by General Dynamics. It's for "Special high-altitude reconaissance"! Can we say, CIA? Two 18,000 lb thrust PW TF33 turbofans, two 3300 lb thrust PW J60 jets. In your pic there's a dark object under the center section, no idea what that is.
The "Baby B-17" is likely a Douglas B-23 Dragon. There weren't many built, but they all stayed in the USA and survived the war, many going civilian. They are basically a hot-rodded DC-3, and reliable as a rock.

[dougreed]

R. POPE, Thank you so much for the info!!! Itook the photo from 50 miles west of Austin, Tx. USA in Nov.2004. I believe it was flying east to west. I can usually ID even the military aircraft that frequent the skies around here. lots of T-33, swearingen turboprop,etc, trainer traffic going n & s, also blackhawk,cobra& plain ole hueys buzz around-before the last 2 conflicts there was lots of C5A, and C130 as well. I've seen tankers flying the deck as well and this is not the boondocks!!! Here is another one for you. I saw this near Edwards AFB in Sept.1994: I was driving back to Texas and saw a small group of craft approach a military runway. Thru my celestron with an eyepiece-didn't have my camera fixed to it- I saw what appeared to be a STEALTH fighter with a single engine light plane and a small bubble canopy type helicopter in close formation. I thought cool here is a chance to see a STEALTH. Well all went well until they got close to what appeared to be the control tower. The small fixed wing and rotor wing craft overtook and passed the now STATIONARY IN MID AIR STEALTH. it slowly sat down on the runway. the only difference from a regular stealth was a bubble type canopy not the angular. I am aware of the x-wing development that was going on then ,but this did not look like either craft, and it was black. any guesses...... I will see if I can find my photo of that "B-23"...thanks

[GermansRGeniuses]

SPECIFICATIONS

Span: 92 ft. 0 in.
Length: 58 ft. 6 in.
Height: 18 ft. 6 in.
Weight: 32,400 lbs. max.
Armament: Three .30-cal. M-2 machine guns, one .50-cal. M-2 machine gun, plus 4,000 lbs. of bombs carried internally
Engines: Two Wright R-2600-3s of 1,600 hp. ea.
Crew: Six
Cost: $133,000
Serial Number: 39-037
C/N: 2723
Other Registrations: N800N, N41821

PERFORMANCE

Maximum speed: 282 mph.
Cruising speed: 210 mph.
Range: 1,400 miles
Service Ceiling: 31,600 ft.


Might the other thingo have been a Harrier?


(Harrier II)


Anyways, similarly enough, many years back, when coming home from somewhere up north (driving through the desert, mind you), I saw a huge black wing fly over...


Note, I was something like 5 at the time, so I thought it was a UFO, until I got interested in aircraft and saw that it was a B-2!

[dougreed]

thank you GermansRGs...That's the plane-but mine was an oxidized sky blue! and as for the harrier - i wish, but I've seen it too many times to mistake it. the elevators/tails were v up. My dad's reno race buddy that's an aerodynamics engineer at the skunk works wouldn't comment on it ! ( and sorry about the x-wing thing, don't mean to sound star wars, it was late, I was refering to the tail design on one of the fighters that boeing & lockeed were competing & prototyping for a contract, one of those was also vtol. But I'm sticking to my (all sharp, angular and edgy ) stealth with a bubble as to EXACT description...this is a great place for info ; guys, thanks again for you guys research...

[the lancaster kicks ass]

man i love the EE Canberra, one of the best looking birds of all time, cirtainly one of the most influential post war bombers, still in service with the RAF today and even better, you americans wanted it (practially unheard of today, the only other exaples i can think of are the BAe hawk and harrier)!!! but you couldn't handle the fact that it was british so you lisence built your own.........

[evangilder]

It wasn't about it being British, Lanc, the American harrier was heavier and they wanted things a bit different, so they license built them with their changes.

[Nonskimmer]

Yeah, Mr. Paranoid!

(I'm kidding, Lanc. )

[the lancaster kicks ass]

you guys want us and can't admit it, aint that always the way.......

[evangilder]

Huh?

[plan_D]

The Gr.7 Harrier is superior to the AV-8B 'Harrier II' so, it's all okay. The British Harrier is still better.