Blackburn / Hawker Siddeley Buccaneer

The Blackburn Buccaneer was a highly-respected low-level carrier-borne strike aircraft utilized by the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy. The Buccaneer featured a crew of two seated in tandem, an internal weapons bay to compliment the external stores and an ingenious tailcone that could be split vertically and used as a large-area air brake. The prototype Buccaneer first flew in 1958 and would lead to a total of twenty pre-production models.

Initial Buccaneers, designated as S.Mk 1 - were ordered with the Gyron Junior 7,100lb thrust engines where as performance issues were addressed with the S.Mk 2 featuring the Rolls-Royce Spey Mk 101 turbofan engine generating 11,200lbs of standard thrust. Future innovations for the system would lead to the inclusion of rocket-assisted take-offs for carrier operations.

The Royal Navy variant featured increased range and provisions for in-flight refueling. With the advent of smaller carriers for the Royal Navy, the Buccaneer's future was in doubt. Thusly many were relegated to RAF service whilst some were procured by South Africa as the S.Mk 50. These Buccaneers featured the 8,000lb standard thrust Bristol Siddeley Stentor rocket motors for short take-off operations.

As a strike fighter, the Buccaneer could be counted on to carry a myriad of air-surface weaponry including iron bombs, structure-destroying missiles, anti-ship missiles and rocket pods. The internal weapons bay was quite sizeable and forced external fuel pods to be utilized more often than not.

In the end, modernization programs helped to extend the life of the Buccaneer as a frontline service strike aircraft.

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Last Revision: 5/6/2009