Martin B-57 Canberra: The Complete Record.

210 Pages·1995·70.18 MB·English

by  Robert C. Mikesh

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B-57
MARTIN CAN:BERRA
THE COMPLETE RECORD
ROBERT C. MIKESH:
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
S
pacedoesnotperrnitthe namesofallwho havecontributed Beggerly,DanaBell,George R. Boucher,EllisE. Bruch, FrankR.
in some degree to this history about the Canberra. Nor is Chandler, Rohert P. Coombs, Peter Cotellesse, Richard A Crist,
therespace to mention thespecialty area inwhich aperson RohertA. Danielson,LarryDavis, Carlton'Jake'Dolwick, Robert
was particularly belpful. My gratitude to all must be accepted by F.Dorr,GeneR.Durden,MelvinC.Eisaman,JudyEndicott,Steve
thissincerethanksfortheirfrequent,timely,andwillinghelp.Head Feaster, Donald E. Felts, Keith Ferris, Wm.A. Fleming, JamesL.
ing this list - and rightfully so, is Ramona, my patient wife, wbo Goodnight,LloydJ.Goodrow,Irwin'Pat'Graham,PaulR.Guthals,
occupied herselfduringtimeswe would otherwiseshare together, JosephA. Guthrie,Jr, RogerD.Harrington, GerardHasselwander,
wbileIwasabsorbedovertbelongtimeperiodofwritingthisbook. KennethH. High, RobertHunter, Lynn M. John,AlbertT. Keeler,
She was always willing to proofread and offer constructive sug JohnN.Kendrick,CharlesD.Leonard,JohnW.Little,RobertLince,
gestionswhenneeded.Witboutherencouragementandfaithfulhelp, RobertD.Lutes,RexMarlowe,LarryB.Mason,Walter1.McGinnis,
thisbookwould nothavebeen written. Roger T. McLeod (RAAF), David W. Menard, Royce F. Miller,
Helping immeasurably with tbe British development portion Clyde E. Millington, Dudley L. Mizer, LeeA. Mongeon, Donald
of this coverage was Roland P. Beamont, English Electric's test N. Nation, Stephane Nicolaou, Paul R. Pitt, David T. Reynolds,
pilotfortheCanberra,andG.M. Hobday,EnglisbElectricresident Gerry I. Repenon, Jerry W. Russell, James J. Scanlon, David
advisory engineer to the Glenn L. Martin Company during B-57 Schoem, RobertA. Schultz,J.T. Stanley, HowardA. Steady,Peter
production. They haveprovided the balance needed in comparing Steinemann(RAAF),CharlesStrain,E.'Ted'Sturrnthal,a.E. 'Pat'
the British totbeAmerican-builtaircraft. TIbbs,NormanThompson,GerryTurner(RAF),DarrellVanCitters,
Informationinmanyformsthatrangefrompersonalaccounts, Robin A. Walker, and Eugene E. Youngs. To all those who have
documentation, to photographs have come from many people, all helped,Iconvey mygrateful tbanks.
ofwhichissonecessarytopiecetogetherthiscoverageoftheB-57
throughout itsmanyyearsofservice.Toachievethis, Ihaverelied RobertC. Mikesh
heavilyuponthehelpreceivedfromDavidA.Anderton,DouglasJ. Wasbington,D.C. 1994
Anabridgededitionofthisbookwaspublishedin1980byIanAllanLtd.
BookDesignbyRobertBiondi.
Copyright©1995byRobertC.Mikesh.
LibraryofCongressCatalogNumber:94-66964
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graphic,electronicormechanical, includingphotocopyingorinformationstorage and retrie....al sys
tems- withoutwrittenpermissionfromthecopyrightholder.
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ISBN,0-88740-661·0
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FOREWORD
A
new generation of aircraft and pilots has come
intotheUSAirForcesincetheB-57wasphased
out of military service. In fact, when mention
r ing to present day pilots that the B-57 was an airplane
that I had once flown, there is question in my mind if
they arecertainwhatIam talkingabout.Withthephase
outofthe B-57 Canberrain 1983, sowent the era ofthe
tacticalbomberthathad itsbeginningbeforeWorldWar
II. In fact, while the B-57 was in Air Force service, it
wastheonly tacticalbomberin inventory. Replacing its
mission is whatwe know today as 'strikeaircraft' rang
ingfrom fighter-bombers to the'N seriesofaircraftlike
theA-10.
TheB-57did notpassintooblivioneasily. Infact, in
somecircles it was consideredan 'old' airplane when it
flew combat in Vietnam, yet they stayed around for
nearly another twenty years after dropping their first
bombs in anger.
My experience as a B-57 pilot began with 'Star
Flight' atAndrewsAFB, near Washington, D.C., in the
early I960s. This unitwas comprisedofahandful ofB
57sandpilotssetasideforadministrativeflightsforthose
of us who could share the flying duties as well. It was
here that Ifirst met author Robert Mikesh and we often
BarryGoldwaterhadbeenSenatorfromArizonafor30yearsandonce
wasacandidateforPresidentoftheUnitedStates. He isastaunch flew together when I had to quickly visit a distant Air
advocateforastrongmilitaryforcefortheUnitedStatesandhadserved Force Base. Straight and level flying is fine for getting
manyyearsontheSenateArmedServicesCommittee. Inthiscapacity
somewhere,buttherewereopportunitiestoseewhatthe
andasanAirForceReserveMajor-General, havingreceivedhis
militarywingsduringWorldWarII, hetookeveryopportunityto airplane could really do.AfterBobdemonstrated aloop
acquainthimself,firsthand, withtheflyingequipmentofthemilitary offthedeckin thisbird, thenallowedmetotry my hand,
services.Inpursuit0/this, SenatorGoldwaterhasseveralhundred I couldn't help but exclaim, 'By golly, this really flies
hours,firstpilottime, in theB-57Canberra.
like an airplane should.' I was impressed with its ma
neuverability which was far better than I would have
expected of an aircraft of this size. Its soundness and
flexibility in mission profile made it a superb combat
weapon, and itservedin that capacity year after year in
SoutheastAsiacompilingaremarkablerecordforitself.
It isamazing, consideringthelength oftime thisaircraft
was inservice, that it performedso well in so many dif
ferent capacities. Because of this, it gathered hundreds
of admirers over the years, especially from those ofus
whohavehadtherewardingfirsthand experienceoffly
ing and working with this rugged, versatile airplane -
Barry Goldwater
United States Senator
5

CONTENTS
Acknowledgements 4
Foreword 5
Introduction 8
Chapter1 Birthofthe Canberra 10
Chapter2 Americans BecomeInterested 16
Chapter3 The Evaluation 20
Chapter4 Canberra-B-57 Comparison 28
Chapter5 Productionand Setbacks 32
Chapter6 Developing the Night Intruder 38
Chapter7 The B-57 EntersService 50
Chapter8 ClarkAB & the BienHoa Deployment 68
Chapter9 First Blood 74
Chapter 10 Night Intruder Missions 79
Chapter11 The BienHoa Holocaust.. 83
Chapter12 Tan Son Nhut 85
Chapter13 Da Nang and the DOOM Pussy 90
Chapter14 A Few 'RoughOnes' 94
Chapter15 VNAFFlies B-57s 99
Chapter16 Phan Rang 105
Chapter17 The FAC's Point ofView ~ 113
Chapter 18 RAAF Canberras 116
Chapter 19 'Patricia Lynn' 120
Chapter20 B-57G Night Intruders 124
Chapter21 PakistanAir Force B-57s 130
Chapter22 The Long Wing RB-57D 132
Chapter23 General Dynamics 'F' 142
Chapter24 B-57E 'Cadillac' 150
Chapter25 Friendly Enemy; DSES 154
Chapter26 AirNational Guard B-57s 160
Chapter27 Special Projects 162
Chapter28 Flying the B-57 168
Chapter29 TheAirplane 172
Chapter30 CombatTransport 177
Appendixes
Appendix1:PerformanceComparisonforSelectingNightIntruder. 179
Appendix2:B~57B Canberra(Tacticalbombt:(version)Facts& Figures 180
Appendix3:MartinB~57ProductionRecord 181
Appendix4:MartinRB-57DVariations 182
Appendix5:GeneralDynamicsRB-57FProductionRecord 182
Appendix6: MartinB-57GConversions 183
Appendix7: Martin8-575ReconfiguredforCombatatMartin,late1965 183
Appendix8:MartinB-57sDeliveredtoPakistanlate1959 184
Appendix9:MartinB-57UnitTailCodes,1967andOn 184
Appendix10:MartinB-57CombatEffectiveness _..... .. 185
Appendix11:MartinB-57UnitAssigrnnents 187
Appendix12:MartinB-57Survivors 189
Appendix13:MartinB-57IndividualActivityRecords 190
Appendix14:MartinB-57CombatActivityChart 200
Appendix15:GlossaryofTenns/Acronyms& Definitions 203
Index 204
INTRODUCTION
M yfirstglimpseoftheCanberrawastheclassicphotoofit theimmortalDC-3 isthegreatworkhorseoftheairtransports,the
in a steeply banked tum at the introductory show at Canberracertainlyoccupiesasimilarnicheinhistory amongcom
Famborough inSeptember 1949. My reaction afterdis bataircraft.
belief,wasrelief- thatthiswasnotaUSAFplanethatImightone ThisacceptancebytheUnitedStatesAirForceinlieuofAmeri
day haveto fly. Tome, itsstraight, wideandstubbywings looked cantypesisalastingtributetotheBritishdesignteamthatcreated
totally antiquated. How quickly we cbange, for in a short time I it. By the time production B-57s were reaching tactical bomber
waswaitinganxiouslyfor ourunittobeequippedwiththeAmeri units,theDouglasB-66,alsoinproduction,wasbeingconvertedto
can-builtversionofthisbomber, andfrom thefirst time Iflew the other missions even before its acceptance in the tactical bomber
B-57B,Iwashookedonit forever. role. For years the B-57 remained the only iet tactical bomber in
Time has proven that the straightforwarddesign was correct, the USAF. When it had dropped its lastbomb, therewere nopure
for the basic Canberra airframe design stayed in continuous U.S. tacticalbomberstoreplaceitnorhastherebeensince.
military service until 1983,and in othercountries even longer.As
8
INrRODUcnON 9
'I
Perhapstheterm'tacticalbomber'initselfisobsolete,for 'at interestedasanewgenerationofreaders.Fortunately,SchifferPub
tackaircraft'and'fighter-bombers'fill thismissionrequirementof lishingLtd. agreedtoreissuethebookand insodoingallowedme
close airsupport that the B-57did so well.Theterm as well as B theopportunity to insert many details that bad tobeleftoutofthe
57sthemselves,nearlycametoan endasfarbackasthelate1950s original, make adjustments where needed, and to add more to the
when tactical bomber unitsbeganphasingout at asteady rate due story that had surfaced from the first edition. We are fortunate to
to mandatory military cutbacks. Only one combat wing remained have colorphotographs added to thisvolume.
(yet ittoowasscheduledfor deactivation)whenanescalatingwar Theoverallstory oftheAmerican-builtCanberraiscontained
situation in Soutbeast Asia reversed Air Force thinking. The in both books, but readers close to the subject will recognize that
Canberraplayedan importantpartinthenineyearsofcombatthat some aspectsofits history havebeenpassedoverlightly, andoth
followed. Whenthefighting ended, theB-57swere removedfrom ers omitted completely. One book cannot contain all the detail I
theroleofUSAF combat aircraft, and the dwindling numbers re wouldlike-thetotalstoryoftheB-57,anairplanethatservedinso
tained in service were reassigned to a peacetime mission. At this many capacities and stayed around as aU.S. military airplane for
writinghowever,oneWB-57Fstillremainsinserviceforhighalti 29 years.
tudeevaluation missionsfor NACA. Much ofthecreditfor the content ofthisbook is sharedwith
Earlier than I like to remember, I decided one day to write a manypeople,includingfellowCanberrapilotswhohadsomefacts
book about the B-57, for Iwas in my third pilot assignment with more clearly in their mind than I. Many of their names appear
Canberras(latertobecomefiveB-57unitassignments,fifteenyears, throughout this history, for airplanes and people cannot be sepa
and2,000hours)andtheyhadbecomeanimportantpartofmylife. rated.TheB-57hastouchedmanypeople-thosethatdesignedand
Ibegangatheringinformationabouttheairplaneanditscrews and builttheCanberra, the crews thatflew it, andthosethat supported
soonhadmorematerialabouttheB-57thanonebookcouldhandle. it so caringly on theground- Ionly regret that everyone'scontri
ThatbookbecameB-57CanberraAtWar1964-1972publishedby butions cannotberecognizedwithin this history ofan aircraftthat
IanAllanin1980.Intime,thatbookbecameoutofprint,depriving will notbeeasily forgotten.
this story ofthe B-57 from others that were interested or became