I’ve decided to write my first thread and although I’ll probably be talking to myself (as is usually the case) I figured that it was about time I start talking about the things I like.
So here is a few things about the English Electric Canberra from its conception to prototypes.

1. During the 6 long years of the second world war some of the greatest aircraft that have ever existed came to be. Be it the spitfire, the Lancaster or the mosquito, they have all lived in the minds of aviation and warbird enthusiasts ever since but in the years immediately -

2. following the war in a new jet age that began with the Me262 what aircraft left a similar mark?
For all the prototypes that came and went the one that has always stuck with me is the English Electric A1 later known as the Canberra.

3. The story of the Canberra begins in 1937 at the Samlesbury Airfield roughly in between Preston and Blackburn in English Electrics 750,000 square foot heavy engineering and traction facilities, which at the time were the largest purpose built aircraft assembly and test factory-

4. In the country that had strong roots having already produced Handley Page Hampdens and Halifax four engines bombers during the war, earning a strong reputation for quality that was highly recognised in the Ministry for Aircraft Production.

5. Despite this, English Electric actually didn’t have an aircraft design team and hadn’t had one since 1923 so with great haste George Nelson selected W. E. W ‘Teddy’ Petter an eccentric designer who, with Westland Aircraft designed the Whirlwind and Welkin fighter to form and-

6. lead a new team to meet the government's new requirement for a Jet Bomber.
By early 1945 Petter had assembled a small team of youngsters to take up the task of designing a bomber that would not only fly as fast as the new fighters but would also fly higher.
One of the most-

7. prominent members of the team poached from Hawkers in March 1945 was Petters right hand man F. W. Page, a senior aerodynamicist who earned a portion of his renown for the introduction of “spring tab” controls on the Tempest fighter-

8. Petter showed Freddy Page his early ideas for the E3/45 requirement, an aircraft that you would immediately recognise as a Canberra today but one that had a single engine in the fuselage and swept wings but they both knew, to achieve the requirements the payload would have-

9. to be carried inside the fuselage and would dictate the amount and placement of the engines in all of the new designs.
Working quickly Petter and Page visited Rolls Royce in Barnoldswick, Lancashire later in 1945 for a discussion with Adrian Lombard and Stanley Hooker who-

9. were working on the AJ65 axial flow engine.
Following this meeting the two would go on to meet Dr A. A. Griffiths, chief of jet engine design at Rolls Royce in Derby and receive a visit to Preston from N. E. Rowe the director general of technical development at the MAP.

10. These meetings would intern decide the Canberra’s twin axial flow engine that would be buried within nacelles on the wings.
Following this the first experimental contracts for the requirement were drawn for several prototypes at the Victoria and Station Hotel.

11. These first proposals included strong longitudinal trimming by a variable incidence tailplane and to include Spring Tab controls all around.
The end of 1945 was nigh and the recruiting phase of the development was almost complete.
People volunteered, others were directed-

12. from other companies and graduates under direction of labour regulations were brought in.
With all of this in the start of 1946 the team consisted of 260 employees.
Some of the notable names were: David Ellis from Vickers as chief aerodynamicist, Ray Creasy also from Vickers

13. and Bob Hollock who would lead the creation of mockups and prototypes.
In late 1946 Petter finally began to consider creating a flight test organization, a decision that would cause some strain with the well established workflow.

14. The two test pilots based at Samlesbury Airfield factories J. W. C Squire and R.Blythe came under the overall control of Arthur Shieffield the works manager at Preston who was in complete control of the English Electric Company there and only answered to the companies board-

15. of directors that was then chaired by Sir George Nelson Senior.
However, this did not suit Petter as he believed that development and production were highly distinct activities and so thought any test pilot should report directly to him.

16. The response to this was negative, though that didn't affect Petter, who went about recruiting a pilot for the position of Chief Experimental Test Pilot and by December had narrowed down his list to two candidates: Squadron Leader Tony Martindale who was already -

17. an highly experienced officer test pilot at Farnborough and Wing Commander Roland Beamont who was a fighter veteran, seeing 3 tours of duty and who was a test pilot for Hawkers.
With these two strong candidates Petter and Page had equally strong views on who should be-

18. appointed for the position, both wanted to avoid the traditional idea of a Prima Donna test pilot and both had opposing views on how close the test pilot should be to the design team.
Petter favoured Martindale because of his strong engineering background but it would be -

19. Page who had the final say choosing Beamont for the position after stating the program would have plenty of engineers but required a test pilot.
By 1947 a full scale wood and cardboard mock of the Canberra was the centre for all of the teams works for flying controls,-

20. Undercarriage and all of the equipment that was to be kept in engine bays, bomb bays and cockpit. Something Crowe and Beamont would spent a great deal of time on, checking over the inevitable compromises that would have to be taken in order to fit-

21. design requirements and operation acceptability.
The design of the wing was to have a symmetrical section with a centre of pressure well behind for a high usable Mach number. Aileron and Rudder would be mass balanced and aerodynamically horn balanced to within 80% of the-

22. estimated requirements with the remainder provided by the spring tab system.
By the end of 1948 component assembly was nearing completion and Petter had moved his design team into an old ex USAF maintenance base at RAF Wharton just five miles from Preston.

22. Then in early 1949 the final assembly and system testing began. There had been concerns over the engines as there had been considerable delays within the RA1 programme that led to one of the prototype Canberra’s being rebuilt in order take Rolls Royce Nene centrifugal engine.

23. The rebuild required certain design necessities such as bulged nacelles that were expected to impact the aircraft performance, however it would ensure at least one of the prototypes would fly that year.
The first prototype English Electric A1 serial number VN799, painted-

24. blue was rolled out of hanger 25 for its first engine runs on 2nd of May and would take 5 days.
Very few unserviceabilities arose apart from a minor nose wheel “shimmy” on the 8th and so Beamont called for a series of short hops in order to establish confidence in the flight-

25. controls.
In 3 of these hops the prototype was quickly accelerated with flaps at 30 degrees to achieve max lift. Nose wheel lift was achieved at 55 knots (63mph) with take off being 75-80 knots (86-92mph).

26. The hops showed smooth and precise control ability, though due to Wharton’s Narrow runway it was noticed that the rudder could be sensed only “in limited displacements” because of the need to hold a straight line.
With these hops the the design preconditions were confirmed-

27. with the aircraft taking off, flying 500 yards and landed again with a full stop well within the length of Wharton's 1,900 yard runway.

So with the utmost confidence the first true flight was planned when weather permit, a day that would fall on the 13 of May 1949.