Blackburn Buccaneer Society

Well, it had to happen. After all the defence cuts and no suitable replacement for the Buccaneer, John Hoole was asked to bring XZ431 out of retirement to do deck landing trials on H.M.S. Invincible for a special mission! If only.

Thanks to John for these great photographs and below, are John's words for what happened when XZ431 'landed' on H.M.S Invincible.

"We supplied XZ431 for a film shoot for a commercial ( Johny Walker Whisky ) in July 2006.

The production company converted her to an F-18 inside( with our help ).

You can see attached pictures of arrival, lift on board, move to rotating table, cameras mounted and finally the actor in with cameras in.

Also pictures of F.A.A. ground crew survival equipment specialists, rigging the ejection seat.

Don't worry the F-18 bit was stuck on and there was no damage to the aircraft."

Please follow this link to see the photographs