This is the first in our new Black Series of reference titles. The English Electric Canberra is one of the classics of aviation history – a simple, yet highly effective design, adaptable to many roles and built in large numbers for service at home and an export success. Who could have seen when the prototype first flew in 1949 that the type would be in frontline service with the RAF for fifty-seven years? The Canberra was developed by English Electric during the mid- to late 1940s in response to a 1944 Air Ministry requirement for a successor to the wartime de Havilland Mosquito fast bomber.