Blackburn Buccaneer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Blackburn Buccaneer
Image:Buccaneer DF-ST-83-04580.jpg
RAF Buccaneer in 1981
Type	Strike aircraft
Manufacturer	Blackburn Aircraft Limited Hawker Siddeley Company
Maiden flight	1958-04-30
Introduced	1962-07-17
Retired	1993 (United Kingdom)
Primary users	Fleet Air Arm Royal Air Force South African Air Force

The Blackburn Buccaneer was a British attack aircraft serving with the Royal Air Force and the Fleet Air Arm. It was widely regarded as one of the finest low-level strike aircraft of its day.

[edit] Overview

Image:Buccaneer-AirBrake.JPG

It saw war service during the 1991 Gulf War when examples were rushed to the area to provide a laser designation capability for British aircraft, and dropping small numbers of laser-guided bombs themselves. It left FAA service with the decommissioning of HMS Ark Royal in 1978, with the remaining examples being transferred to the RAF. The last squadrons were disbanded in 1993.

South Africa was the only country other than the United Kingdom to operate the Buccaneer, where it was in service with the South African Air Force from 1965 to 1991. A few Buccaneers remain in private hands in South Africa, and can be hired out for exhilarating pleasure flights around the coast.

[edit] Design

The Buccaneer was built to fulfil the Naval Staff Requirement NA 39 issued in 1953 for a carrier-borne strike aircraft with a long range capable of carrying a nuclear weapon below enemy radar and attacking ships or ports. Blackburn's design, B.103, won the tender.

Due to secrecy the aircraft was called BNA (Blackburn Naval Aircraft) or BANA (Blackburn Advanced Naval Aircraft) in documents leading to the obvious nickname of "Banana Jet".

The Buccaneer featured a number of novel and advanced design features. The fuselage was area ruled, that is, it designed to reduce drag at transonic speeds. This gives rise to the characteristic curvy "Coke bottle" shape. The wing is relatively small, but is blown by bleeding compressor gas from the engine through vents in the wing surface to increase lift. The tail cone was split and could be hydraulically opened to the sides to act as a variable air brake. It also helped reduce the length of the aircraft in the confined space of an aircraft carrier (the nosecone and radar could also be swung around by 90 degrees; a Buccaneer folded up for stowage looked rather alarming). This was a particularly important requirement as some of the contemporary British carriers were relatively small. The bomb bay had doors that rotated into the fuselage to expose the payload, rather than extending into the airflow.

[edit] Variants

[edit] S.1

Original production model
Powered by two Gyron Junior turbojet engines

Image:15 Phantom landing on Eagle Mediterranean Jan1970.jpg

[edit] S.2

From 1962
Conversion of the S.1
Powered by two more powerful Rolls-Royce Spey turbofan engines
various improvements

[edit] S.2A

Ex Royal Navy aircraft, reworked for RAF use

[edit] S.2B

New build for RAF service, 45 (1973 - 1977)
Full fit, so it can carry the Martel anti-radar or anti-shipping missile

[edit] S.2C

Rebuild of Royal Navy aircraft, to S.2A standard

[edit] S.2D

Rebuild of Royal Navy aircraft to S.2B standard (operational with Martels from 1975)

[edit] General changes to UK aircraft

Self defence
- ECM pods
- Chaff and flare dispensers
- AIM-9 Sidewinder missile capability
Paveway II guided bombs with Pave Spike pods
Sea Eagle missile capability (No. 208 Squadron RAF, from 1986)

[edit] S.50

A special South Africa-only version of the naval S.2, complete with folding wings, albeit no longer powered. An important change from the British version was the addition of two single-stage rockets (see RATO) to assist take-off from hot-and-high airfields like that of AFB Waterkloof in Pretoria, where the type was mostly based.

[edit] Users

Image:14 Phantom landing on Eagle Mediterranean Jan1970.jpg

[edit] Operators

[edit] Units using the Buccaneer

[edit] Royal Air Force

[edit] Fleet Air Arm

No.700Z NAS (Intensive Flying Trials Unit)
No.700B NAS
No. 736 NAS
No. 800 NAS
No. 801 NAS
No. 803 NAS
No. 809 NAS

[edit] South African Air Force

No. 24 Squadron

[edit] Trivia

The aircraft was featured in Area 88 as Roundell's personal jet.
The plane was used when Najica and Lila were pursuing the Oboro in Najica Blitz Tactics
Two Buccaneers were featured in the Frederick Forsyth novel The Fist Of God, where they were assigned as target markers for the raid on the Al Qubai "scrapyard."
The Buccaneer was featured in the Videogame Ace Combat 2.
It also featured in the film Lord of War.
The aircraft was nicknamed the 'Blackburn Bulldozer' following a training exercise in the USA in which a Buccaneer shaved the top off a sand dune.