Motormouse
SOH-CM-2024
there was project Robin (also known as Operation Robin); involving a modified Canberra B.2 serial WH726, because the US didn't yet have a suitable airframe available.
ROBIN entailed the use of a new 240-inch focal length framing camera that was specially built for LOng-Range Oblique Photography (LOROP). This formidable piece of folding optics was designed at the Boston University Optical Research Laboratory for carriage by aircraft that could fly high enough to return useful imagery of ‘denied territory from within friendly airspace. It was probably devised specifically for the B-57/Canberra, because it fitted neatly into that aircrafts bomb bay using the existing lugs. Indeed, it was colloquially known as ‘The Bomb Camera' .On 1 March 1954, WH726 was flown to the US by a crew from No 58 Sqn, the second unit to re-equip with the PR3. The B2 was modified at Hanscom Air Force Base, near Boston, to accept the bomb camera, which took pictures through a large optical window cut into the aircrafts port lower fuselage, adjacent to the main undercarriage bay. After WH726 returned to the UK in mid-April 1954, it was used by 58 Squadron on at least nine LOROP missions along the borders of the Warsaw Pact in Central Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean. A second aircraft flew alongside, to warn of tell-tale condensation trails. The flights continued until at least July 1955. WH726 was retired in July 1955, later sold to Peru as #236
ROBIN may (or may not) have involved overflights of Soviet Union to Kapustin Yar ... officially its still 'classified". Here's
repaint for Steve Beeney's (Flying Stations) B2 Canberra, shout out if you want it
ttfn
Pete
ROBIN entailed the use of a new 240-inch focal length framing camera that was specially built for LOng-Range Oblique Photography (LOROP). This formidable piece of folding optics was designed at the Boston University Optical Research Laboratory for carriage by aircraft that could fly high enough to return useful imagery of ‘denied territory from within friendly airspace. It was probably devised specifically for the B-57/Canberra, because it fitted neatly into that aircrafts bomb bay using the existing lugs. Indeed, it was colloquially known as ‘The Bomb Camera' .On 1 March 1954, WH726 was flown to the US by a crew from No 58 Sqn, the second unit to re-equip with the PR3. The B2 was modified at Hanscom Air Force Base, near Boston, to accept the bomb camera, which took pictures through a large optical window cut into the aircrafts port lower fuselage, adjacent to the main undercarriage bay. After WH726 returned to the UK in mid-April 1954, it was used by 58 Squadron on at least nine LOROP missions along the borders of the Warsaw Pact in Central Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean. A second aircraft flew alongside, to warn of tell-tale condensation trails. The flights continued until at least July 1955. WH726 was retired in July 1955, later sold to Peru as #236
ROBIN may (or may not) have involved overflights of Soviet Union to Kapustin Yar ... officially its still 'classified". Here's
repaint for Steve Beeney's (Flying Stations) B2 Canberra, shout out if you want it
ttfn
Pete
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