In the early 1950s the United States, home of Boeing and Douglas and the world’s mightiest aircraft industry, went shopping abroad for a bomber. It bought a British one. The Martin B-57 Canberra — an American-built version of the English Electric Canberra — became the only foreign design adopted as a frontline U.S. bomber of its era, and it went on to a career longer and stranger than anyone expected.
Seventy years later, a handful are still flying — not for any air force, but for NASA.
Quick Facts
| Aircraft | Martin B-57 Canberra ("Night Intruder") |
| Origin | US-built under licence from the English Electric Canberra |
| First flight | 20 July 1953; 403 built through 1959 |
| Distinction | The only foreign design adopted as a frontline U.S. bomber of its era |
| Vietnam | 2 B-57B squadrons from 1965; of 94 sent, 51 lost in combat |
| Recon | RB-57D and RB-57F/WB-57F high-altitude variants |
| Still flying | NASA operates WB-57s from Ellington, Houston, today |
| Role | Night interdiction, close air support, high-altitude reconnaissance |
An American accent on a British design
When the USAF needed a fast jet bomber to replace the piston-engined B-26 Invader, the standout candidate was already flying in Britain. In March 1951 the Air Force contracted the Glenn L. Martin Company to build the Canberra under licence. Martin reworked it for American needs — tandem seating, a novel rotary bomb door, and heavy gun and cannon armament on the B-57B, the most-produced version. The first Martin-built example flew on 20 July 1953, and 403 were delivered before production ended in 1959.
The Night Intruder over Vietnam
The B-57 found its hardest war in Southeast Asia. From 1965 two B-57B squadrons deployed to South Vietnam, flying close air support and, above all, night interdiction against the supply routes of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. It was dangerous work: of the 94 B-57s committed to the theatre, 51 were lost in combat before the last B-57B left in late 1969.
Meanwhile a very different Canberra was climbing where almost nothing could follow it. The RB-57D and the enormous-winged RB-57F were built for high-altitude strategic reconnaissance, prowling the edge of space.
The bomber that became a science platform
Those high-altitude recon variants gave the design its afterlife. Re-designated WB-57F, several passed to NASA for atmospheric research, and the agency still flies a small fleet of them out of Ellington Airport in Houston.
That makes the Canberra family one of the longest-serving jet designs in aviation history — a British bomber, built in America, still earning its keep as a flying laboratory more than seven decades after it first took off. Not bad for an aircraft the U.S. only bought because someone else built it better first.
Sources: U.S. Air Force; NASA (WB-57 history); Lockheed Martin; Smithsonian; Wikipedia.
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