If you lived in Scotland, Wales or Yorkshire during the 1960s or 1970s, you would have memories of many quiet hillside picnics shattered by a fleeting couple of shadows and seconds later the terrifying blast of jet engines screaming mere dozens of feet right over your head. The usual culprit was the Blackburn Buccaneer – for several decades the finest-handling low-level attack aircraft in the world.
The Buccaneer grew out of a 1953 Royal Navy requirement for a carrier-borne anti-shipping aircraft that could carry a very heavy load of conventional or nuclear weapons at 200 feet and 550 knots out to a distance of 400 miles. This requirement was driven by the threat of a new breed of fast Russian warships that were being produced in vast quantities during the fifties. Blackburn would have been nobody’s choice to produce an aircraft as advanced as this type would need to be, since during the fifties their only product was the hugely ugly and slow Beverley transport aircraft.
However, Blackburn quickly produced an extremely innovative design (Blackburn Advanced Naval Aircraft, or “Banana Jet”) that incorporated such new technology as boundary-layer control and a canopy woven with miniature detonating cord to aid in emergency water egress. The latter bit of kit was designed to fragment the canopy in the event of ejection, and was proven so effective that it’s still being used in fighter aircraft today. The first example flew in 1958, and while it flew extremely well, the early engines desperately lacked power. This was addressed in 1961 with the adoption of the Rolls Royce Spey, which gave 11,380 pounds of thrust and turned the Buccaneer into the formidable performer it was.
Pilots who flew the Buccaneer quickly became enamoured of its uncanny comfort on the deck. In fact, I’ve spoken with NATO fighter pilots who hated following the Buccaneer through the wilds of Yorkshire and Wales because down low the big, “slow” attack aircraft would simply walk away from much faster types like the F-4 Phantom. In 1977 a group of ten were sent on the American Red Flag exercises, where they essentially owned the competition. Apparently the only sign that a Buccaneer was running in on the attack was Nevada dust thrown into the air; they couldn’t be tracked by any systems of the day because they were arriving on scene at just over fifty feet.
British Buccaneers didn’t see real action until the first Gulf War, during which they acquitted themselves quite nicely. In the late seventies, however, South African Buccaneers were sent on ground-attack missions in Angola, where they came under some very heavy (Soviet/Cuban-supplied) anti-aircraft fire. At least one aircraft was hit by 17 cannon shells, the largest of which was a 67mm. One 23mm shell bounced off the windscreen but the aircraft returned to base without drama.
The Buccaneer was replaced (like nearly every other British warplane) by the Panavia Tornado. The Tornado has proven to be not nearly as effective in the role as its ancient predecessor: it’s not comfortable to fly on the deck, it needs fuel-guzzling afterburners to fly as fast as the non-reheated Buccaneer could, which means a greatly reduced range, and it can’t carry as many anti-shipping missiles. When the Banana Jet was finally retired in 1994, crews stated that “the only replacement for the Buccaneer is another Buccaneer”.
You lead description reminds me of a quite day fishing on Jackson Lake in the 1980s. Suddenly two A-7 Corsair IIs were screaming only a couple of hundred feet overhead. My dad and I guessed that they were doing practice bombing runs on the dam at the other end of the lake.
Nice – the A-7 was cool as anything. Getting buzzed by jets was one part of the Cold War I really enjoyed.
<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/64/A-7E_F-4K_Bucc2B_1976_NAN7-76.jpg/300px-A-7E_F-4K_Bucc2B_1976_NAN7-76.jpg" />
I've had the same thing happen a few times while in a small boat on Lake Kissimmee in central Florida – jets screaming right overhead barely above treetop level on their way to the Avon Park bombing range.
One of the nearby bases, since shutdown, was a home for a squadron of B-52s, and they would practice touch-and-gos at all hours of the day and night. A B-52 a full throttle and low altitude is incredibly loud, and we grew quite tired of the exercises, especially at 3 AM. I really like military aircraft, but damn…
In college I had an apartment near Dobbins AFB north of Atlanta. Got to see lots of cool Navy and Lockheed stuff. But every now and then they would be flying/playing with something that would play absolute havoc with the cordless phones.
My father and I had climbed to the top of Masada for a look around at the historic old site. Near the end of the day we hear the approaching scream of jet engines and looked up only to see nothing. Somewhat baffled, we continued looking, then I realized that the sound was below us. I looked over the edge and into the cockpits of 2 F-16s flying border patrol below the level of the ground that I was standing on! I waved and the pilots waved back, with big grins on their faces. I'm pretty sure this was their regular routine and that they got a good kick out of surprising the heck out of the tourists.
There were stories of Buccaneers going under helicopters on the range at Cold Lake during Maple Flag. The Brits have (had?) a very comprehensive low flying training program.
Here's a video of what shouldn't happen on board ship.
[youtube zBfqiKukVps&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBfqiKukVps&feature=related youtube]
That was the top-secret underwater model developed to find the Vulcan stolen by SPECTRE (an event reimagined in Thunderball). This footage was likely only just declassified by the Royal Navy.
I have a new favorite jet… If they flew any lower they'd need rock guards on the inlets…
[youtube g0-xnaRSL6g&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0-xnaRSL6g&feature=related youtube]
Once again…why didn't I become a pilot? I hope you clicked on the Red Flag link above. Crappy video quality but I think you get a good idea of how bonkers these guys were.
Rock guards? They need to be certified dolphin safe!
We live within spitting distance of Edmonton International Airport, and yet strangely, thanks to the wind patterns, never hear the jets at all. Except when military jets take off with afterburners to put on a bit of a show. It happens about three or four times a year, and the Snap-THWOOOMMM sound makes me grin every. Damn. Time.
Nice article. I had seen that cockpit and nacelle combination before, but I never knew what it was. Or how unique of an aircraft it was.
Quite a few early British designs had a similar layout…as you'll see in coming weeks…
So they talked you into it. Sigh, I tried to warn you…
Oh we
guiltedtalked him into it months ago. He caved after far fewer beatings than I would have expected.So if I was filthy rich tons of money I would have my fleet of cars, an F4 Phantom, a P-38 Lightning and now I've added a buccaneer to the list.
Gotcha. Those three are on the super-rich list, along with a Tupolev
Tu-95h as my personal business plane (Bentley in the bomb bay?)
an English Electric Lightning and a Canberra.
When a Buccaneer flew by the Rabbits lowered their ears. Now that's low..