nazca_steve
Charter Member
Well, at long last (as Warhorse will tell you!), Flying Stations is pleased to announce the release of the Martin B-57A/RB-57A Canberra pack.
For those not familiar with the type, the 'Alpha' of the B-57 series is a somewhat overlooked entity in the family, much overshadowed by the tandem 'B' series that followed the 68 'A's that were built. The 'A's were similar in external appearance to their British cousins, and were still fitted with the bubble canopy, albeit with a crew of two and a revised seating and cockpit layout. The biggest change was the introduction of more powerful engines and a natty rotating bomb bay door (now commonplace on bombers) that did not produce drag and allowed for higher speeds over the target area. However, the USAF brass still felt the design not suitable for a true night interdictor role, and so re-designed the Canberra to produce the better known American version, the 'B'.
Here however, in keeping with the bubble canopy aspect of this series, I have made four variants of the B-57A: The original stillborn B-57A, the recon-bomber RB-57A, and two offshoots in the form of the weather mod WB-57A (very similar to a RAF B.6 (mod), and the NASA test-bed JB-57A with launchable sounding rocket.
The pack can be downloaded from here:
http://www.flyingstations.com/canberra-pack-b57a.html
Happy flying and visit our support thread with any questions. And before anyone asks, yes, that amount of startup smoke is normal for the B-57!!
For those not familiar with the type, the 'Alpha' of the B-57 series is a somewhat overlooked entity in the family, much overshadowed by the tandem 'B' series that followed the 68 'A's that were built. The 'A's were similar in external appearance to their British cousins, and were still fitted with the bubble canopy, albeit with a crew of two and a revised seating and cockpit layout. The biggest change was the introduction of more powerful engines and a natty rotating bomb bay door (now commonplace on bombers) that did not produce drag and allowed for higher speeds over the target area. However, the USAF brass still felt the design not suitable for a true night interdictor role, and so re-designed the Canberra to produce the better known American version, the 'B'.
Here however, in keeping with the bubble canopy aspect of this series, I have made four variants of the B-57A: The original stillborn B-57A, the recon-bomber RB-57A, and two offshoots in the form of the weather mod WB-57A (very similar to a RAF B.6 (mod), and the NASA test-bed JB-57A with launchable sounding rocket.
The pack can be downloaded from here:
http://www.flyingstations.com/canberra-pack-b57a.html
Happy flying and visit our support thread with any questions. And before anyone asks, yes, that amount of startup smoke is normal for the B-57!!
