Gulf War Nose Art

The following information is © Anton Dyason - IPMS SA Media Group

The Buccaneer was once considered to be one of the finest low-level bombers ever designed. It was designed by Blackburn (later Hawker Siddeley and currently part of BAe), to meet a Royal Navy requirement for a strike aircraft that could penetrate beneath the natural horizon of surface based radars. The first type flew on 30 April 1958 and designated NA-39. But it was under-powered for operation from British ships and a new power plant was installed, in the form of the Rolls Royce Spey engine. This type was called the S.Mk.2 and flew on 17 May 1963.

It was so successful that it superseded the initial production variant the S.Mk.1. It served with the FAA (Fleet Air Arm) - its primary mission to knock out Soviet ships with a nuclear bomb. Unfortunately, the Buccaneer suffered the first of a wave of politics and would be a victim of politics through out its career.

The Royal Air Force showed no interest in the type. This viewpoint severely hampered export sales. Ironically, with the scaled down policy of the British carrier the Buccaneer was transferred to the Royal Air Force, who initially wondered what to do with it. But the Buccaneer fought back and proved all the sceptics wrong and emerged as one of the most successful aircraft of the RAF. In the end, despite its retirement - no other aircraft could entirely replace the Buccaneer!

Ordered by South Africa.

At the time of the South African order, the Cold War was still in existence. Following the closure of the Suez canal in 1956 the shipping lanes around South Africa was viewed as extremely important.

This led to the Simonstown agreement between South Africa and Britain. S.A. would receive weaponry from Britain, to defend the shipping lanes, in exchange for the use of base finicalities at Simonstown Naval base, near Cape Town. Some of the weaponry included 10 Wasp helicopters (later a total of 17), 3 Whitby class frigates, and 16 Buccaneers of similar standard as the S2.

The S. Mk. 50

S.A went about the purchase in a remarkable businesslike manner, while taking into account the advice from Blackburn, remained firm as to what the SAAF actually required. The result was the S.Mk.50, a standard S2, but with strengthened undercarriage and higher capacity wheel brakes, with manually folded wings.

In flight refueling was also specified and due to the vast coast line, longer range 430 gallon underwing tanks. Due to S.A's hot and high conditions concern was expressed if the Buccaneer would actually get into the air, under certain load conditions. The engineers at Blackburn came up with an assisted take-off mechanism in the form of two retractable Bristol Siddeley BS605 rocket engines. This gave 30s of additional thrust during take-off and was located at the back of the aircraft, towards the rear of the engine nacelle.

The arrestor hook was retained for airfield arrester systems or even 'goodwill' landings on British ships during joint exercises - whether this actually happened is unclear. S.A. was the only operator of the S.Mk.50 and ordered a total of 16, in January 1963. The only major upgrade was the fitment of the belly tank during its career. The cockpit was similar as the ones of the RAF, but South Africa fitted a different sighting system.

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