Grupo 2 de Bombardeo Canberras for FS2004

60th Anniversary of the Canberra Special - VN799 repaint: In honour of the 60th Anniversary of the Canberra, I've added the superb 60th logo made for WT333, to the equally superb A.1 prototype model by Paul Foster. This model is available in Pack 1 of Paul's Canberras, and you can download the repaint here. VN799 was the original Canberra, and is shown here with the rounded fin that it first flew with on that sunny Friday 13th, 60 years ago in May 1949.

Remembering the Baptism of Fire, 1st May 1982/2009:Today is the 27th anniversary of the FAA's baptism of fire, and I would like to remember the brave crews of the Grupo 2 de Bombardeo, which went into action this day. As a result, Ten. Eduardo De Ibáńez and 1 ° Ten. Mario González were lost in this action, when their aircraft, Canberra B-110 was shot down by Sea Harrier XZ451, and crashed into the sea.

They were brave men, who believed in their cause, and were prepared to make an attack in bad weather conditions against an technologically superior enemy. However, we should also recognise that respect and understanding can reconcile the differences between our nations, and I would like to also remember Lt. William Alan Curtis, pilot of XZ451, who lost his life on the 6th May 1982, when he crashed into Lt. John Eyton-Jones during a patrol. Both the crew of B-110 and Lt. Curtis deserve equal memory, as do all those soldiers, sailors and airmen who died during the conflict.

May they not be forgotten.

AVAILABLE NOW: Lo-Viz Textures for B.62 (B-101) and T.64 (B-111) models inspired by a Marcelo Siri idea, I present two possible lo-viz schemes that FAA Canberras might have worn had the Group continued to the present day.

Update - 4th March, 2009: Added B-109: A Case Study in Photos page, by kind courtesy of Roberto Nocetto, via Marcelo Siri.

Update - 21st February, 2009: Added screenshots page showing multiplayer, AI and solo flight shots around the Parana area.

Update - 15th February, 2009: Technical detail photos added to Personnel and History page.

Update - 10th February, 2009: Project 'Origins' launched. Two new repaints for B-102 and B-112 as they appeared in the RAF careers are now available. Both aircraft are shown wearing their trainer colours, with WJ713 (B-102) as part of 360 Sqn, and WJ875 (B-112) as part of 231 OCU. If anyone has photos of the rest of the original Canberras in their RAF days, I would be grateful for them. So far it has been VERY hard to find anything on them! NOTE: You will need the original B.2 and T.4 Canberra models by Paul Foster.



Update - 9th February, 2009: 
I have now added AI traffic for the entire G2B to fly between SAAP and SADJ. The traffic covers the pre 2000 era colour schemes, although I may consider adding the late-era Canberras if there are requests. All models will need to downloaded again in order to use the AI traffic plans, as it was necessary to make some updates to their configuration files. All installation details contained within the zip, and you will need the freeware programme 'Ttools' to compile certain files needed to add the airports and aircraft. A big thanks to my friend Graham Child for creating the traffic plans and airport arrangements.

Update - 2nd February, 2009:  Through my various chats on Key Publishing Aviation Forum, I recently contacted Santiago Rivas, a respected Argentinian aviation historian and one of the authors responsible for the superb Wings of Fame article mentioned below. He had this to say about his future work:

"Now I'm arranging a new meeting with Comodoro Vivas, who was also a Canberra pilot during the war. I'm in contact with him because he is writing the official story of the FAA's attack planes through history and I'm helping him. In the last meeting we talked briefly about the war, as we talked more on Avro Lincolns and Lancasters. He has a lot of knowledge about the Chaff/ flare dispensers done during the war for the Canberras and Learjets. The chaff were made cutting aluminium plates with a spaghetti machine.
I'm also in contact with Brigadier Chevallier, who also was a Canberra pilot on the war, but now he is the Joint Chieff of Staff of the Armed Forces and is very difficult to ask him for time to talk about the Canberras. He really loved the plane and was responsible for extending the life of the planes from 1998 to 2000."

Update - 27th January, 2009: Texture for B-112 updated, as it was causing some computers to crash. New download available now.

Update - 20th January, 2009: The redesigned site is now live. The inspiration for this came after meeting Marcelo Siri, son of Lt. Siri, one of the Canberra navigators that served during the Falklands/Malvinas conflict. Following several conversations with Marcelo, I decided it was time to redesign the site in CSS programming and with all new graphics and look and feel. I am pretty happy with the results, and hopefully so will you be.

Update - 21st March, 2008: The Virtual Argentine Air Force has reviewed this for the use with its virtual fleet. This is both an honour and has provided useful feedback, as some users have problems installing the textures with the correct model. Accordingly, I have provided the aircraft models with dedicated configuration files that make it much easier to install the correct texture for the correct model.

Welcome to FS2004 Canberras of the Grupo 2 de Bombardeo. The purpose of this site is to recreate the G2B's twelve Canberras for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004. The models were created by Paul Foster in January 2008, and all repaints have been created by myself, Steven Beeny, since then. On the right you can download the B.62 and T.64 models, of which there are 'tip tank' and 'clean' configurations for the two versions, along with all the repaints for the group.

The idea of launching the project came out of my interest in both the English Electric / BAC Canberra and the Falklands / Malvinas conflict. In early 2007, I was approached a colleague, Paul Foster, about the construction of a new and wide range of models for FS2004 Canberra. This was a huge project, but Paul finished it in January 2008, and included Argentine Canberra B.62 models, something not seen before in the flight simulator community. The quality and detail of the models is undoubtedly excellent, and includes opening entrance hatch and bomb bay doors. Interior detail is also good, although the model B.62 includes two crew members seated behind the pilot, something that rarely occurred with FAA crews (especially during the conflict).
Finally, the site is dedicated to the crews and all those associated with the Grupo 2 de Bombardeo. Aside from the presentation of models and repaints, I wanted somewhere to gather information about the group, along with photos, and hopefully, interviews with former Group 2 crews. Much of the information on the group can be read on the 'Wings of Fame Journal' Vol 17, with a wonderful article by Juan Carlos Cicalesi, Santiago Rivas and Salvador Mafe Huertas, and also the newer FAA Series book 'BAC Canberra B.Mk.62 and T.Mk.64' by Jorge Nunez Padin.