Description

The Blackburn Buccaneer is a British carrier-capable attack aircraft designed in the 1950s for the Royal Navy. 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, so low as 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. 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 shortfall would be quickly addressed via the introduction of the Buccaneer S.2, equipped with more powerful Rolls-Royce Spey jet engines, in 1965. The Buccaneer S.2 would be the first Fleet Air Arm 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 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 would be cancelled largely due to its high cost, then its selected replacement, the General Dynamics F-111K, would also be cancelled. The Buccaneer was purchased as a TSR-2 substitute and entered RAF service during October 1969.