The Blackburn Buccaneer is a British carrier-capable attack aircraft designed in the 1950s for the Royal Navy (RN). Designed and initially produced by Blackburn Aircraft at Brough, it was later officially known as the Hawker Siddeley Buccaneer when Blackburn became a part of the Hawker Siddeley Group, but this name is rarely used.
The Buccaneer was originally designed in response to the Soviet Union introducing the Sverdlov class of light cruisers. Instead of building a new class of its own cruisers, the Royal Navy decided that it could address the threat posed via low-level attack runs performed by Buccaneers, low enough to exploit the ship's radar horizon to minimise the opportunity for being fired upon. The Buccaneer could attack using nuclear weapons or conventional munitions. During its service life, it would be modified to carry anti-ship missiles, allowing it to attack vessels from a stand-off distance and thus improve its survivability against modern ship-based anti-aircraft weapons.Jackson 2011, p. 137. The Buccaneer performed its maiden flight in April 1958 and entered Royal Navy service during July 1962.
Initial production aircraft suffered a series of accidents, largely due to insufficient engine power; this defect was quickly addressed by the introduction of the Buccaneer S.2, equipped with more powerful Rolls-Royce Spey jet engines, in 1965. The Buccaneer S.2 was the first Fleet Air Arm (FAA) aircraft to make a non-stop, unrefuelled crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. During the 1960s and 1970s, the Royal Navy standardised the air wings operating from their carriers around the Buccaneer, Phantom, and the Fairey Gannet. The Buccaneer was also offered as a possible solution for the Royal Air Force (RAF) requirement for a supersonic interdictor carrying nuclear weapons. It was rejected as not meeting the specification, in favour of the more advanced BAC TSR-2 bomber, but this aircraft was cancelled largely due to its high cost. Its selected replacement, the General Dynamics F-111K, was also cancelled. The Buccaneer was purchased as a TSR-2 substitute and entered RAF service during October 1969.
The Royal Navy retired the last of its large aircraft carriers in February 1979; as a result, the Buccaneer's strike role was transferred to the British Aerospace Sea Harrier and the Buccaneers were transferred to the RAF. After a crash in 1980 revealed metal fatigue problems, the RAF's fleet was reduced to 60 aircraft while the rest were withdrawn. The ending of the Cold War in the 1990s led to military cutbacks that accelerated the retirement of Britain's remaining Buccaneers. The last of the RAF's Buccaneers were retired in March 1994 in favour of the more modern Panavia Tornado. The South African Air Force (SAAF) was the only export customer for the type. Buccaneers saw combat action in the first Gulf War of 1991, and the lengthy South African Border War.
The plane was affectionately known by the nickname "Banana Jet" by its aviators and crews.
Development Royal Navy
After the Second World War, the Royal Navy responded to the rapid expansion of the Soviet Navy. Chief amongst Soviet naval developments in the early 1950s was the ; these vessels were classified as light cruisers, being fast, effectively armed, and numerous. Like the German "pocket battleships" during the Second World War, these new Soviet cruisers presented a serious threat to the merchant fleets in the Atlantic.Jefford et al. 2005, pp. 103–104. The Royal Navy decided not to use a new ship class but instead introduce a specialised strike aircraft employing conventional or nuclear weapons. Operating from the Navy's fleet carriers, and attacking at high speed and low level, it would offer a solution to the Sverdlov problem.Chesneau 2005, pp. 5–6.
A detailed specification was issued in June 1952 as Naval Staff Requirement NA.39, calling for a two-seat aircraft with folding wings, capable of flying at at sea level, with a combat radius of at low altitude, and at higher cruising altitudes. A weapons load of was required, including conventional bombs, the Red Beard free-fall nuclear bomb, or the Green Cheese anti-ship missile.English Aeroplane April 2012, p. 72. The Ministry of Supply issued specification M.148T in August 1952, and the first responses were returned in February 1953. Blackburn's design by Barry Laight, Project B-103, won the tender in July 1955.Jackson 1968, p. 480. For reasons of secrecy, the aircraft was called BNA (Blackburn Naval Aircraft) or BANA (Blackburn Advanced Naval Aircraft) in documents, leading to the nickname of "Banana Jet". The first prototype made its maiden flight from RAE Bedford on 30 April 1958.Jackson 1968, p. 481.Chesneau 2005, pp. 6–8.
The first production Buccaneer S.1, entered squadron service with the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) in January 1963.Jefford et al. 2005, p. 104. It was powered by a pair of de Havilland Gyron Junior turbojets, producing of thrust.Green 1964, p. 430. This mark was underpowered and could not take off if fully laden with fuel and armament. A temporary solution to this problem was the "buddy system": aircraft took off with a full load of weaponry and minimal fuel, and would rendezvous with a Scimitar that would deliver the full load of fuel by aerial refuelling.Calvert and Donald Wings of Fame Volume 14, p. 48.Bishop and Chant 2004, p. 162. The lack of power meant that the loss of an engine during take-off, or landing at full load, when the aircraft was dependent on flap blowing, could be catastrophic.Jackson 1968, pp. 487–488.
The long-term solution to the underpowered S.1 was the development of the Buccaneer S.2, fitted with the Rolls-Royce Spey engine, which provided 40 per cent more thrust. The turbofan Spey also had significantly lower fuel consumption than the pure-jet Gyron, which provided improved range. The engine nacelles had to be enlarged to accommodate the Spey and the wing required minor aerodynamic modifications.Calvert and Donald Wings of Fame Volume 14, pp. 49–50. Hawker Siddeley announced the production order for the S.2 in January 1962.Flight International 11 January 1962, p. 38. All Royal Navy squadrons had converted to the improved S.2 by the end of 1966.Jefford et al. 2005, p. 105. 736 Naval Air Squadron also used eight S.1 aircraft taken from storage to meet an extra training demand for RAF crews until December 1970.Eeles 2008, pp. 61–64.
South African Air Force In October 1962, 16 aircraft were ordered by the South African Air Force (SAAF), as the Buccaneer S.50."British to sell jets to Africa." Spokane Daily Chronicle, 12 October 1962. p. 10. These were S.2 aircraft with the addition of Bristol Siddeley BS.605 rocket engines to provide additional thrust for the "hot and high" African airfields. The S.50 was also equipped with strengthened undercarriage, and higher capacity wheel brakes, and had manually folded wings. They were equipped to use the AS-30 command guided air-to-surface missiles. Due to the need to patrol the vast coastline, they also specified aerial refueling, and larger underwing tanks.Calvert and Donald Wings of Fame Volume 14, pp. 51–53. Once in service, the extra thrust of the BS.605 rocket engines proved to be unnecessary, and they were eventually removed from all aircraft.Van Pelt 2012, p. 180. South Africa later sought to procure more Buccaneers, but the British government blocked orders, because of a voluntary arms embargo on that country.Laming 1996, pp. 11–12.
Royal Air Force
Blackburn's first attempt to sell the Buccaneer to the Royal Air Force (RAF) occurred in 1957–1958, in response to the Air Ministry Operational Requirement OR.339, for a replacement for the RAF's English Electric Canberra light bombers, with supersonic speed, and a combat radius; asking for an all-weather aircraft that could deliver nuclear weapons over a long range, operate at high level at Mach 2+ or low level at Mach 1.2, with STOL performance.Wynn 1997, p. 503. Blackburn proposed two designs, the B.103A, a simple modification of the Buccaneer S.1 with more fuel, and the B.108, a more extensively modified aircraft with more sophisticated avionics. Against a background of inter-service distrust, political issues, and the 1957 Defence White Paper, both types were rejected by the RAF; as being firmly subsonic, and incapable of meeting the RAF's range requirements; while the B.108, which retained Gyron Junior engines while being heavier than the S.1, would have been severely underpowered, giving poor short-take off performance. The BAC TSR-2 was eventually selected in 1959.Buttler Air Enthusiast September/October 1995, pp. 12–13, 15–16, 21–23.Boot Aeroplane Monthly March 1995, p. 29.
After the cancellation of the TSR-2, and then the substitute American General Dynamics F-111K, the Royal Air Force still required a replacement for its Canberras for low-level strike, while the planned retirement for the Royal Navy's aircraft carriers meant that the RAF would also need to add a maritime strike capability. It was decided in 1968 that the RAF would adopt the Buccaneer by the purchase of new aircraft and by taking over the Fleet Air Arm's Buccaneers as the carriers were retired.Wynn Flight International 11 February 1971, p. 203.Calvert and Donald Wings of Fame Volume 14, pp. 59–60.Boot 1990, pp. 64–65. A total of 46 new-build aircraft for the RAF were built by Blackburn's successor, Hawker Siddeley, designated S.2B. These had RAF-type communications and avionics equipment, Martel air-to-surface missile capability and could be equipped with a bulged bomb-bay door containing an extra fuel tank.
Some Fleet Air Arm Buccaneers were modified to carry the Martel anti-ship missile. Martel-capable FAA aircraft were later renamed S.2D. The remaining aircraft became S.2C. RAF aircraft were given various improvements. Self-defence was improved by the addition of the AN/ALQ-101 electronic countermeasures (ECM) pod (also found on RAF's SEPECAT Jaguar GR.3), chaff, flare dispensers and AIM-9 Sidewinder capability. RAF low-level strike Buccaneers could carry out what was known as 'retard defence'; four retarded bombs carried internally could be dropped to provide a deterrent against any following aircraft. In 1979, the RAF obtained the American AN/AVQ-23E Pave Spike laser designator pod for Paveway II laser-guided bombs; allowing the aircraft to act as target designators for Buccaneers, Jaguars and other strike aircraft. From 1986, No. 208 Squadron RAF, then No. 12 (B) Squadron, replaced the Martel ASM with the Sea Eagle missile."RAF plans Buccaneer update." Flight International, 4 February 1984. p. 316.
Proposed developments Further developments beyond the Buccaneer S.2 were put forward by Hawker Siddeley in the 1960s and 1970s but none were pursued through to production by the Royal Navy or the Royal Air Force. The Buccaneer 2* was presented as a cost-effective alternative to the TSR-2. The 2* would have featured newer equipment; such as head-up displays and onboard computers from the cancelled Hawker Siddeley P.1154 VTOL aircraft, it would have also adopted the same radar system as that being developed for the TSR-2. An even more extensively upgraded model, the Buccaneer 2** was also mooted, which would have been furnished with more sophisticated land-strike capabilities from the TSR-2. According to Denis Healey, defence minister 1964–1970, the RAF had been hostile to the Buccaneer due to it being a naval aircraft; it has been further suggested that developing improved Buccaneers for the RAF would weaken arguments against the Royal Navy's planned CVA-01-class aircraft carriers.Hampshire 2013, p. 60. In one report by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), it was claimed that two Buccaneer 2* could do the job of one General Dynamics F-111, for less than half the unit cost.Hampshire 2013, pp. 60–61.
Design Overview