Canberra PR.9 175

[nexus11]

In Phil Keeble's excellent Book "Patrolling the Cold War Skies: Reheat Sunset" he describes a flight in a thunderstorm to Malta. 

He describes the aircraft with the code 175, but without the two letters in front of it.

 

Does anyone know which Canberra that was exactly? And what it looked like at the time?

Or even better: Does anyone have any photos of the plane from that time? 

Best of all, someone even has photos of the plane after the flight, it must have looked terrible.

 

Where could I find pictures? Ask anyone except Mr. Keeble himself...

 

If I can find Canberra experts anywhere, it's here, right?

 

Thank you very much for your help!

[Giorgio N]

Yes, you will find some true Canberra experts here !

I am not one of them, but I bet that the aircraft could have been XH175, that was indeed a Canberra PR.9. She served with Malta based 39 Sqn, from 1962 to 1970, then with the same unit in the UK and later with A&AEE before returning to 39 Sqn. In 1982 she passed to 1 PRU when 39 Sqn was disbanded and then she was retired in 1989. IIRC the nose section still exists in private ownership

 

Just googling "canberra xh175" will give you a few pictures from various websites showing the aircraft at different stages through her career. This aircraft would have been delivered in silver and later repainted in the Dark Green/Dark Sea Grey scheme. Does the book mention a date for that flight ?

[nexus11]

Oh, thanks… that’s a beginning.

 

The aforementioned flight took place on August 8th, 1969, so this could be the right plane.

[71chally]

Yes it would be XH175 as Giorgio says, at that time the code would have been a single letter in dayglo on the nose.

There's a picture here taken in Dec 1969,

 

Some lovely, and expandable, images of 39 Sqn PR.9s of that era on this page, about quarter the way down.

https://raf-luqa.weebly.com/39-sqdn-photo-recbombing.html

Edited September 7, 2020 by 71chally

[71chally]

Thinking on it, the single letter code might not have been introduced until they relocated to the UK.

[sloegin57]

26 minutes ago, 71chally said:

Thinking on it, the single letter code might not have been introduced until they relocated to the UK.

39Sqdn were coded, 13Sqdn after arrival from Cyprus were not

 

Dennis

[Lord Riot]

That would almost certainly be XH175. As far as I'm aware all RAF Canberra PR9s had serials in the XH range.

[sloegin57]

31 minutes ago, Lord Riot said:

That would almost certainly be XH175. As far as I'm aware all RAF Canberra PR9s had serials in the XH range.

 

The date is correct and the  incident referred to was in fact to PR.9 XH175 and was caused by a lightning strike to an aerial mounted in the fin.  A brief explanation.  

 

The fin of the Canberra contained a rather large GEE-H Mk.2 - ARI 5829 navigation aerial, the indicator lamps being at the top of the pilot’s main instrument panel. On the PR.9 this was known officially as GEE H Mk.2 - Tropical - (Mouse). For that reason and to provide a good degree of radio "transparency", most of the fin was made from moulded plywood covered with madapolin, an unbleached Irish linen more commonly known as fabric, clear doped to the outer surface.  It was this aerial that was struck exploding the fairly weak plywood outwards and into the void. 

 

I do have a rather distant blurred photo of the aircraft landing taken by one of the many Maltese spotters but for the life of me have failed to locate it in my data base.  The Thunderstorm had been so large, violent and relatively sudden that even the PR.9 could not fly above it.

 

As regards codes on the Malta PR.9's :-

 

Up until late 1964, it is not apparent that neither 58, during its brief 18 month partial equipment with the type, nor 13 and 39 squadrons wore any form of code. In early 1965 at least three aircraft from 39 introduced 10 inch two digit codes, being the last two of the serial, on the top of the extreme nose. In the April of that year, single letter 10 inch codes were adopted by 39 Squadron, this time with the code either side of the nose as well as on top in the same place as the two digit codes. As the aircraft were camouflaged, the codes disappeared. 13 Squadrons silver aircraft appear to have worn no codes in Cyprus and certainly wore none during my time on Malta. By April 1966, the bases Squadron line-ups was as follows:-

26 April 1966 - Luqa based PR9 Squadrons:-

39 SQUADRON
XH134 A
XH167 B – uncoded – camouflaged
XH168 C
XH169 D
XH170 E
XH172 F
XH173 G
XH174 H
XH175 J
XH171 M
WH861 T.4 - uncoded

13 SQUADRON
XH135
XH131
XH130
XH136
XH165
XH177 Grounded – cracked main spar – later disassembled at RAF Safi and shipped to the UK
XH137
XH164
XH176 Still coded ‘K’ from service with 39 Squadron. 13 Squadron badge on the fin

XH133, ex A&AEE was delivered to 13 Squadron 12 October 1966.

 

HTH

 

Dennis

 

 

 

 

 

 

[nexus11]

Ok, that means, XH175 wore the code J… but did it in August 1969? And as I understood it right, it was already camouflaged then?

 

It would be so great if I could ever seen that plane in that state then. As Phill Keeble wrote, it was in a awful shape and was transported by ship back to Belfast.

 

He wrote: "The engine intakes and nacelles were flattened like a boxer's nose. The thick metal air scoop for the generators had holes punches clean through them- The whole front of the fuselage and wings had been pounded, planished and stripped of paint…"

The fibreglass roof of the navigator had become so thin that sunlight came in and parts of the windscreen had gone… it must have been a terrible sight.

 

Edited September 7, 2020 by nexus11

[sloegin57]

1 hour ago, nexus11 said:

Ok, that means, XH175 wore the code J… but did it in August 1969? And as I understood it right, it was already camouflaged then?

 

 

 

It most certainly would have been camouflaged by then and as i said in post 8, the codes disappeared after camouflage was applied.

 

If it was coded whilst at Wyton, then it would have been internally as were most of the based aircraft except for 51Sqdn which carried theirs externally but as I recall, 58 were in residence then.

 

photo below - Wyton July 1975 :-

 

 

HTH

 

Dennis

[nexus11]

Thanks a lot, and You're right, You did mention it. I was confused…

 

Great Picture, by the way.

As we now have identified the actual plane, shouldn't I close this thread and start a new one asking directly for pictures of XH175?

Edited September 7, 2020 by nexus11

[71chally]

2 hours ago, sloegin57 said:

It most certainly would have been camouflaged by then and as i said in post 8, the codes disappeared after camouflage was applied.

 

Dennis

Ah, now this is where we might have crossed wires about the codes.

 

When 39 Sqn PR.9s were silver they wore single letter codes in black on the sides of the cockpit.

When they went camoflaged they wore single letter codes in dayglo in the same place, these seem extremely hard to see in B&W photos. 

I think that by the time they went to tactical roundels (just after the move to UK?) the letter codes were dropped, so they weren't around for long, then there was a period when the last two numbers of the serial were repeated on the tip of the nose cone in yellow.

 

Edited September 7, 2020 by 71chally

[71chally]

Here's another image of XH175, no date but this how it would have appeared in 1969.

 

@nexus11 I would keep this thread open, but maybe edit the title to ask for photographs.

[Radfan Hunters]

On 9/7/2020 at 3:08 PM, sloegin57 said:

 

The date is correct and the  incident referred to was in fact to PR.9 XH175 and was caused by a lightning strike to an aerial mounted in the fin.  A brief explanation.  

 

The fin of the Canberra contained a rather large GEE-H Mk.2 - ARI 5829 navigation aerial, the indicator lamps being at the top of the pilot’s main instrument panel. On the PR.9 this was known officially as GEE H Mk.2 - Tropical - (Mouse). For that reason and to provide a good degree of radio "transparency", most of the fin was made from moulded plywood covered with madapolin, an unbleached Irish linen more commonly known as fabric, clear doped to the outer surface.  It was this aerial that was struck exploding the fairly weak plywood outwards and into the void. 

 

I do have a rather distant blurred photo of the aircraft landing taken by one of the many Maltese spotters but for the life of me have failed to locate it in my data base.  The Thunderstorm had been so large, violent and relatively sudden that even the PR.9 could not fly above it.

 

As regards codes on the Malta PR.9's :-

 

Up until late 1964, it is not apparent that neither 58, during its brief 18 month partial equipment with the type, nor 13 and 39 squadrons wore any form of code. In early 1965 at least three aircraft from 39 introduced 10 inch two digit codes, being the last two of the serial, on the top of the extreme nose. In the April of that year, single letter 10 inch codes were adopted by 39 Squadron, this time with the code either side of the nose as well as on top in the same place as the two digit codes. As the aircraft were camouflaged, the codes disappeared. 13 Squadrons silver aircraft appear to have worn no codes in Cyprus and certainly wore none during my time on Malta. By April 1966, the bases Squadron line-ups was as follows:-

26 April 1966 - Luqa based PR9 Squadrons:-

39 SQUADRON
XH134 A
XH167 B – uncoded – camouflaged
XH168 C
XH169 D
XH170 E
XH172 F
XH173 G
XH174 H
XH175 J
XH171 M
WH861 T.4 - uncoded

13 SQUADRON
XH135
XH131
XH130
XH136
XH165
XH177 Grounded – cracked main spar – later disassembled at RAF Safi and shipped to the UK
XH137
XH164
XH176 Still coded ‘K’ from service with 39 Squadron. 13 Squadron badge on the fin

XH133, ex A&AEE was delivered to 13 Squadron 12 October 1966.

 

HTH

 

Dennis

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 15, 2020 by Radfan Hunters

[Radfan Hunters]

Looking at the photographs I took of 13 and 39 Squadron PRs in 1962-4, it would appear that 39 Squadron must have begun using single character codes in the latter part of 1963. XH134 = A; XH168 = C; XH173 = G; XH176 = K. None of the 13 Squadron aircraft had codes.

Edited September 15, 2020 by Radfan Hunters