BLACKBURN BUCCANEER S.2C

The Blackburn / Hawker Siddeley Buccaneer was a British mid-wing jet-powered on-board attack aircraft. The drive was provided by two motors Rolls-Royce Spey . The prototype flight took place in 1958. In the course of serial production, which lasted in the years 1958-1977, 211 examples of this aircraft were produced. The armament was a load of up to 7257 kg of bombs or rockets. In 1953, the Royal Navy announced a need for a completely new, airborne, jet-powered attack aircraft, capable of flying at low altitudes and capable of carrying tactical nuclear loads. Blackburn Aircraft Ltd. successfully responded to this demand by constructing the Buccaneer machine. It turned out to be a very successful aircraft, fully meeting the expectations of the Royal Navy, with fantastic lifting capacity, good flight parameters and being a machine liked by pilots for good piloting qualities and low failure rate. During the series production - started in 1958 - several development versions were created. The first one to be produced on a larger scale was the S Mk.1. In 1964, the S Mk.2 version was put into production, differing from the previous one by a new, more powerful version of the Spey engine and a redesigned chassis. Shortly thereafter, the S Mk.2A version appeared with newer avionics and enlarged fuel tanks. A version of the S Mk.2B was also developed, which was adapted to carry Martel missiles. Buccaneer planes served primarily on four British aircraft carriers: HMS Victorious, HMS Eagle, HMS Hermes and HMS Ark Royal, as well as from land bases in Great Britain. Machines of this type were used in combat during the Operation Desert Storm in 1990-1991. The only foreign recipient of this successful plane was South Africa.