page_title: Blackburn Buccaneer
section_title: Overview
hierarchical_section_title: Blackburn Buccaneer / Design / Overview
caption_attribution_description: A parked Royal Air Force Hawker Siddleley Buccaneer S.2B aircraft during the 1981 RAF Strike Command Bombing Competition that was held between the United States and Royal Air Forces.
context_page_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's Sverdlov-class cruiser construction programme. Instead of building a new fleet of its own, the Royal Navy could use the Buccaneer to attack these ships by approaching at low altitudes below the ship's radar horizon. The Buccaneer could attack using a nuclear bomb, or conventional weapons. It was later intended to carry short-range anti-shipping missiles to improve its survivability against more modern ship-based anti-aircraft weapons.
  The Buccaneer entered Royal Navy service in 1962. The initial production aircraft suffered a series of accidents due to insufficient engine power, which was quickly addressed in the Buccaneer S.2, equipped with more powerful Rolls-Royce Spey jet engines.
context_section_description: The Buccaneer was a mid-wing, twin-engine aircraft. It had a crew of two in a tandem-seat arrangement with the observer seated higher and offset from the pilot to give a clear view forwards to enable him to assist in visual search. Its operational profile included cruising at altitude (for reduced fuel consumption) before descending, just outside the anticipated enemy radar detection range, to 100 feet (30 m) for a 500-knot (930 km/h; 580 mph) dash to and from the target. Targets might be ships-at-sea or large shore-based installations at long range from the launching aircraft-carrier. To illustrate, in May 1966, an S.2 launched from HMS Victorious in the Irish Sea, performed a low-level simulated nuclear weapon toss on the airfield at Gibraltar and returned to the ship, a 2,300-mile (3,700 km) trip The aircraft had an all-weather operational capability provided by the pilot's head-up display and Airstream Direction Detector, for example, and the observer's navigation systems and fire control radar. The Buccaneer was one of the largest aircraft to operate from British aircraft carriers, and continued operating from them until the last conventional carrier was withdrawn in 1978. During its service, the Buccaneer was the backbone of the Navy's ground strike operations, including nuclear strike.
  The majority of the rear fuselage's internal area was used to house electronics, such as elements of the radio, equipment supporting the aircraft's radar functionality, and the crew's liquid oxygen life support system; the whole compartment was actively cooled by ram air drawn from the tailfin. For redundancy, the Buccaneer featured dual busbars for electrical systems, and three independent hydraulic systems. The aircraft was made easier to control and land via an integrated flight control computer that performed auto-stabilisation and auto pilot functions.
caption: A 208 Sqn. RAF Buccaneer S.2B in 1981.  Wrap-around camouflage was applied, as it would often be observed while manoeuving at low levels.
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