Description
This Buccaneer A3 sized Poster depicts a squadron patrol.
The Blackburn Aircraft Company NA.39 was a rugged carrier-borne, high-speed low-level strike aircraft and in its production form, it became famous as the ‘Buccaneer’.
The Blackburn NA.39 prototype (XK486) was first flown at RAE Bedford on 30th April 1958, piloted by Derek Whitehead.
Blackburn & General Aircraft were absorbed into Hawker Siddeley Aviation Ltd (HSA) during 1960 but the company continued to trade under its original identity until on 1st July 1963. Under HSA, a ‘Divisional structure’ was created and Blackburn became the Hawker-Blackburn Division. Thereafter, all products were styled as ‘Hawker Siddeley’ types, rather than under the name of their original parent firm.
The Hawker Siddeley Buccaneer made use of boundary layer control on wings and tailplane to allow operation from the relatively small British aircraft carriers. The area-ruled fuselage (a design technique used to reduce an aircraft’s drag) featured a rotating bomb bay and two jet engines, integrated in the wing roots. The two crew were seated in-tandem, under a single sliding canopy, with a search radar mounted in the nose. Air brakes were incorporated into a bullet fairing at the rear of the fuselage, opening laterally to provide its braking action.
Designed from the outset for low-level operation over land and sea, the HS Buccaneer had an immensely strong structure. Whilst production aircraft were assembled at Brough, Yorkshire, they were then towed 18-miles on their own wheels to Holme-on-Spalding Moor for flight test.
On 26th January, the first production HS Buccaneer S Mk1 (XN922) took off on 23rd January 1962. Sadly, this aircraft was later involved in a fatal crash on take-off at Boscombe Down, on 5th July that same year.
The HS Buccaneer S Mk 1 entered service trials with the Royal Navy in 1961, although the design was later re-engineered to accommodate the more powerful Rolls-Royce Spey engine, which was required for carrier take off. It was designated as the HS Buccaneer S Mk 2 (which is readily identified by its large elliptical engine air intakes).
The prototype HS Buccaneer S. Mk 2 (XK526) first flew on 17th May 1963.
Artworks from the collection of the late Artist Barry Wallond, from St Mawgan in Cornwall. Barry’s artwork included a wide range of WW2 and Post War Royal Air Force aircraft, drawn in Pencil. Barry also created a over 150 computer designed images of aircraft, with details of the individual aircraft portrayed.
