![canberra bomber crew positions canberra bomber crew positions](https://live.staticflickr.com/7049/6942171015_4e1644396a_b.jpg)
In low-level attacks against targets in northern France, Gibb damaged seven locomotives, and, during a later sortie, the formation he was leading destroyed two German fighters. On Mahe shared in the destruction of a Junkers 88 bomber. After two years training students to fly twin-engine aircraft he joined No 264 Squadron flying Mosquitoes on long-range fighter sorties over the Bay of Biscay, giving support to the anti-submarine aircraft patrolling the area. He was identified as above average and selected to be a flying instructor despite his limited experience. In May 1940 he joined the RAF and trained as a pilot. After completing his education at Clifton College, he joined the aero-engine division of the Bristol Aeroplane Company as an apprentice in 1937. The son of a Scottish mining engineer, Walter Frame Gibb was born near Port Talbot on March 26, 1919. It was the most difficult flying I have ever experienced." Gibb, who was flying solo, observed: "The last 500 ft took an awfully long time. He turned east and finally reached a new record altitude of 65,876 ft (nearly 12.5 miles high) over Bristol.
![canberra bomber crew positions canberra bomber crew positions](https://live.staticflickr.com/8026/7315708650_4bd7eeb24c_b.jpg)
Again taking off from Filton, he climbed over the Bristol Channel towards Ireland and levelled off at 50,000 ft in order to burn off fuel to lighten the aircraft before continuing his ascent. Climbing to the west, the Canberra reached an altitude of 63,668 ft, more than 4,000 ft higher than the previous record.įlying the same Canberra, fitted with more powerful Olympus engines, Gibb made an attempt to break his record on August 29, 1955. Gibb and his observer, FM Piper, took off from Filton, near Bristol, on in an English Electric Canberra bomber powered by two Bristol Olympus engines. Wing Commander Walter Gibb was twice decorated for gallantry as a night fighter pilot before becoming a test pilot with the Bristol Aeroplane Company, when he flew the Brabazon and Britannia airliners during the early 1950s he flew a modified Canberra bomber, twice breaking the altitude record for an aeroplane.