Canberras are doing a job that was undreamed of when the aircraft first entered service.

The RAF also used some Canberras for high-altitude meteorological work (Credit: Science Photo Library) The English Electric Canberra began life with the Air Ministry’s 1944 call for a new, fast bomber, and first flew in 1950. It was a sleek and graceful design, looking very much like the fighter aircraft of the time; the pilot and navigator sat next to each other in a fighter-style cockpit, while a bomb aimer peered through the Perspex nose of the aircraft. The Rolls-Royce Avon engines, a design that would later power Britain’s supersonic Lightning fighter, were housed in aerodynamic nacelles, one on each of its thick wings. The plane’s wingspan was almost exactly as long as the aircraft’s fuselage, an oddly neat detail in an aircraft built to be fast, reliable and easy to fly. In 1957, a Canberra broke the record for highest altitude, when it reached a height of 70,310ft (21,400m). Fast and high “The Canberra proved to be a good design right from the very start,” says David Keen from the RAF Museum, Hendon. “It could go quite fast for a bomber, and go higher than any other bombers could go,” he says. The Canberra didn’t carry any defensive guns like World War Two-era bombers had – it was supposed to fly so fast that enemy fighters simply wouldn’t be able to catch up. “These characteristics are responsible for its long career in service,” says Keen. “And they also help to make it a very good reconnaissance plane.” Bombers tend to be built so they’re easy to fly and easy to keep stable – which helps when you’re trying to accurately bomb a target – and that also tends to make aircraft a good choice for reconnaissance missions.