Fly Past

90 RAF CENTENARY CELEBRATION BOMBERS

HAWKER SIDDELEY BUCCANEER

BUCCANEERBUCCANEER

HAWKER SIDDELEY

1918 2018

W

hile touring the Buccaneer

production line at Brough

on Humberside in mid-

1976 the last six aircraft were

nearing completion the author

was struck by a cartoon pinned to

a work station. It was alongside

a ‘girlie calendar’ they were an

obligatory management accessory

in those days and the first ‘frame’

showed an enormous ingot being

delivered to the factory.

The second drawing depicted

several of these giant blocks, each

one being ‘attacked’ by men with

hammers and chisels. The final

image was of a pristine, gleaming

Buccaneer surrounded be large

chunks of discarded metal. The

message was that Buccaneers were

so strong because they weren’t

assembled – they were sculpted from

solid metal. (This was based on fact;

elements of the Buccaneer’s airframe

were, indeed, milled from ingots.)

Not far away at the flight test

airfield, Holme-on-Spalding-Moor,

inside the flight shed was a banner

also alluding to the durability of the

jet, but with a helping of Yorkshire

self-deprecation: ‘Buccaneer Honed

to Perfection and Hammered to Fit’.

The Buccaneer had an illustrious

career with the RAF, but from its

selection it suffered from the ‘not

invented here’ syndrome. This

machine was an upstart, the RAF

was adopting an aircraft that had

been designed for, and operated by,

the Royal Navy.

NOWHERE TO GO

Designed to meet an exacting

requirement for the Fleet Air Arm,

the prototype Buccaneer first flew

on April 30, 1958. The navy wanted

a low-level, high-speed, nuclear-

capable, carrier-borne strike aircraft.

To achieve this Blackburn used

advanced aerodynamics, boundary

layer control to keep approach

speeds reasonable, advanced

electronics for the low-level

environment and a rotating bomb

door to keep the airframe ‘clean’.

The initial version, the S.1 was

powered by a pair of 7,100lb st

(31.58kN) de Havilland Gyron

Junior 101 turbojets. The first

frontline unit was 801 Squadron,

taking its first examples in July

1962 and embarking them on HMS

Ark Royal in February 1963. In the

same year Blackburn became part of

Hawker Siddeley.

Much more powerful Rolls-Royce

Spey turbofans were fitted to the

further refined S.2, the prototype

having its maiden flight on May 17,

1963. This version entered service
      with 801 Squadron at Lossiemouth
      in October 1965. With the
      scrapping of the Royal Navy’s ‘big’
      aircraft carriers in 1978, the Fleet
      Air Arm retired its Buccaneers.
      Aware of the Buccaneer as it was
      being developed, the RAF shunned
      it in favour of the BAC TSR.2 but
      the programme was cancelled in


1964. In the void created by the
      TSR.2, the American General
      Dynamics F-111K ‘swing-wing’
      strike aircraft was ordered, only for
      this to fall by the wayside in 1968.
      With nowhere else to turn,
      the RAF finally focussed on the

Above

Buccaneer S.2B XT275

of 208 Squadron,

Honington, 1980.

It was built for the

Fleet Air Arm and

entered service with

801 Squadron in 1965,

transferring the RAF in

1977 and retiring

in 1985.

© ANDY HAY http://www.

fl yingart.co.uk

Right

Impressive line-up at

Lossiemouth on April

30, 1988 to celebrate

the 30th anniversary

of the fi rst fl ight of the

prototype Buccaneer.

Included are aircraft

from 12 and 208

Squadron and

237 Operational

Conversion Unit.

RAF LOSSIEMOUTH

BUCCANEERBUCCANEER

W

Above hile touring the Buccaneer

1969 TO 1994

“With nowhere else to turn, the RAF fi nally

focussed on the Buccaneer. Few realised at

the time, but it turned out to be the last all-

British bomber to serve the RAF.”