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| On the 13 May 1949, at Warton Aerodrome, Lancashire, Chief Test Pilot Roland Prosper 'Bee' Beamont, C.B.E., D..S.O and Bar, D.F.C. and Bar, made the first test flight of the English Electric A.1 prototype, VN799. This aircraft was to be named the Canberra in January 1950.
The English Electric Canberra is a British first-generation jet-powered medium bomber. It was developed by English Electric in response to a 1944 Air Ministry requirement for a successor to the wartime de Havilland Mosquito fast bomber. Among the performance requirements for the type was the demand for an outstanding high-altitude bombing capability and high speed. When the Canberra was introduced to service with the Royal Air Force (RAF), the type's first operator, in May 1951, it became the service's first jet-powered bomber. Throughout most of the 1950s, the Canberra could fly at a higher altitude than any other aircraft in the world. In 1957, a Canberra established a world altitude record of 70,310 feet (21,430 m). In February 1951, another Canberra set another world record when it became the first jet aircraft to make a non-stop transatlantic flight. Due to its ability to evade the early jet interceptor aircraft and its significant performance advancement over contemporary piston-engined bombers, the Canberra became a popular aircraft on the export market, being procured for service in the air forces of many nations. The Flightgear version was authored by Lee Elliott & Josh Babcock in 2004 and contains a number of interesting features, such as automatic take-off mode, automatic instrument landing and Mach Climb Mode. |