AUSTRALIAN JET BOMBERS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27094, 18 July 1953, Page 6

AUSTRALIAN JET BOMBERS

Three Canberras To Visit Harewood

TRAINING FOR AIR RACE

Three Canberra twin-jet bombers of the Royal Australian Air Force are expected to fly from Australia to Christchurch next week. According to the Wellington representative of “The Press,” the Canberras will land at the Christchurch International Airport, Harewood, on July 24 and return to Australia on July 27. They will make a familiarisation flight in preparation for the LondonChristchurch air race, for which the R.A.A.F. has entered two Canberras in the speed section. Although the Canberras’ top speed is still secret, it is known that they can fly at more than 600 miles an hour at heights above eight miles. If conditions are favourable the Australian bombers are likely to cross the Tasman in less than two and a half hours. No official information is available about the R.A.A.F. plans, but it is believed that two of the Canberras wil. fly from Laverton, near Melbourne, where specially selected crews are training for the race. The third may fly non-stop from Western Australia — a distance of approximately 3500 miles. This is within the capacity of a Canberra, as it can be fitted with wing tip tanks and extra tanks in the bomb bay. Two of the Canberras will be Brit-ish-built aircraft, as only one made in Australia has been handed over by the Government aircraft factories to the R.A.A.F. for operational use. Britishbuilt Canberras have been entered in the air race, but the R.A.A.F. hopes to replace them with Australian aircraft. The Minister of Defence Production (Mr E. Harrison) has announced that the first Australian Canberra, which was handed over less than a month after its initial test flight, will be flown in the race.

Nine pilots and navigators of the R.A.A.F. are expected to fly the Canberras to Christchurch. Each aircraft will probably have a chief pilot and second pilot, and a navigator. The crews have not been named, but they are likely to be drawn from No. 1 Long Range Flight, which was formed at Laverton to train crews for the race and study the data of long-range jet flights. In that case the crews nominated for the race should be flying the aircraft.

Christchurch will be the first city in New Zealand to see jet bombers. When the Canberras scream over Harewood at 10 miles a minute those at the airport will have a foretaste of the finish of the air race half-way across the world from England. They will also see three of the finest jet bombers in service today. The Canberra is the first of the new generation of British bombers —all jets—and in the last two years it has- made record-breaking long-range flights to nearly every part of the world. It is almost sure to set new records next week.