A bit of history for you if, like me, you like all this stuff. I was originally a Tornado G1/1A navigator in the RAF. My last tour was at A&AEE Boscombe Down where we had a Buccaneer, which was used for test flying. I was sent to the then very small OCU up at RAF Lossiemouth and given a short course so I could fly our test specimen, which was painted in bright yellow! This was between 1992 and 1994, during which the RAF got rid of the Buccaneer to save money under the 'Options for Change' defence cuts after the first Gulf War. Boscombe Down kept our 'flying banana' in service, but it was eventually given its marching order. I had the privilege of being the last navigator to fly it on its final flight, which was a low level flight around Wales. The pilot was Major Rick Husband of the USAF, who was serving on Fixed Wing Test Squadron as a test pilot. Rick would later go on to become an astronaut with NASA. Sadly he was killed as the commander of the Space Shuttle Columbia on 1st Feb 2003. Despite his hi-tech background flying the F15C/E in the States, he loved flying the Buccaneer and thought it was great. It was a fitting end to a wonderful machine. Funnily enough, there was always a lot of banter on squadrons between the Tornado guys and the ex-Buccaneer crews who ended up on the Tornado (they were known as 'WIWOBs' due the fact many of their stories would begin, 'When I was on Buccaneers'!). The WIWOBS were always saying that if only the Buccaneer airframe had been fitted with the Tornado avionics system, it would have been the perfect aircraft. Having been a nav on both, I am not sure I agree. The Tornado was better in so many ways than the Buccaneer, but the Buccaneer had an amazing bomb bay that meant you could take a huge load without the massive drag caused by stores on the Tornado. I imagine both groups of people never changed their mind, but it was always a great discussion!
Loved that story and history angus and the fulfilling chuckle thanks to u and the mates tagging WIWOBS...that's a great story, bound to frustrate some but a great chuckle here downunder. Thx
A legend. Around the Highlands it was not unusual to be driving near a loch and find oneself looking down at a Buccaneer or have one fill the rear view mirror for a couple of milliseconds. My former colleague, retired CPO Tyler, used to tell stories about having to remove fence wire that had become embedded in Buccaneer wings.
Ground effect is amazing 😊 as was the Buccaneer. Seeing one dust a runway off and I would say at times at 5 maybe 6 ft under full control opened my eyes to aerodynamics in a big way. British and brilliant 🇬🇧👏👏👏👏
I served at RAF Laarbruch in the 80's. when we converted to Tornado and replaced the Buccaneers. It was like losing an old friend, sure the compared to the Buccaneer the Tornado seemed like replacing an Austin 7 with a Lamborghini but the BUC was special, nothing but nothing could fly at low level like her, she was unique.
Remember being at an airshow at Chivenor in Devon in the early 80s when they announced that a Bucc 4 ship were in the area and would simulate an airfield attack - stunning watching one following the contours of the coastal dunes ahead of us as it barrelled towards the airfield. As it roared overhead at a ridiculously low height, the other three arrived a split second apart from the other three directions. Cue shreiks of surprise, startled looks and car alarms going off. Once the roar started to subside, we all started to laugh at how we'd been so completely monstered by the mighty Buccs. Simply wonderful memory.
My father was one of the avionic designers. He was seconded to the SAAF at Waterkloof AB when the UK government sold a number to SA in the mid to late 1960s.
SAAF bought 16 if I recall? Back in the early 60's. When we wanted to buy more, your Harold Wilson refused. Unbelievable ! The only Allied country actually fighting communism and USSR expansionism, has an arms embargo placed upon her. Anyway, by 1991 only 5 were still operational as 11 had been cannibalised. . .
@@Bruce-1956 Sorry Bruce but you mentioned your father being seconded to the SAAF. Which suggests he was not in the SAAF. So meaning seconded from the RAF or FAA? Or the manufacturer?
@PhansiKhongoloza He was seconded from Ferranti Edinburgh which were the designers/producers (if i'm correct) of the avionics systems. For me it was the best time of my life.
I served on the Ark Royal in the mid 70's till she paid off in 78( I think) the big boy on the flight deck was the f4 phantom and the weird kid the double propeller early warning pot bellied Gannett, but between them was the Ttail Buccaneers..... I have great memories of the buccaneers landing on the flight deck especially at night, the pilots hitting the deck slow enough to catch the cable but just fast enough to excellerate and fly off if they miss the cable...... I can remember many flying stations in practice and exercise, but the two that stand out will stay with me forever... during a recreation day the squadrons were showing off their talents against decoy targets,I had a great view on one of the weather decks just below the flight deck with a cup of tea, I was looking for the source of a loud jet getting closer when I looked down and a pilot of a buccaneer looked up at me,he was so low he left a wake on the sea surface.I was so surprised I forgot to close my mouth and tea ran down my number 8's and I swear the pilot was laughing at me his head bobbing as if giggling. The other was years after I left the RN and on a converted minesweeper fishing for cod with my fishing club, we were out of Hartlepool and a good way out enjoying a quiet sunny day all of us lost in thought. Out of nowhere a massive noise crashed on us, everyone hit the deck in shock, but as I looked up I saw the T-tail of a buccaneer disappointing into the distance I was so happy and excited I jumped up shouting buccaneer buccaneer buccaneer like a madman,I was so happy with being used as a target of a pilots sense of humour,he knew he would frighten the shit out of us......I loved the buccaneer
Blackburn had actually proposed a larger, supersonic version of the Buccaneer as a substitute for the TSR.2. If the RAF had take up that idea, the RAF would have by the early 1970's a very capable low-altitude interdiction platform that would be half the cost per plane compared to the TSR.2, with about 120-150 airframes built. And it would have given Soviet war planners nightmares.
Ultimately, u can thank the yanks for the demise of all things UK aerospace/ aviation technology progression. Ultimately, even given the high quality of UK tech after the Second War, the yanks wanted u to buy US equipment for their economy thus stifling UK tech progression.
@@geoffreymee7671 A British White Paper at the time noted that British Aircraft had unit costs 20% higher than American due to the much larger American production runs and advised cooperation with Europe as a simultaneous launch of an airliner in UK, France and Germany would be a financial disaster for all. The same applied to military aircraft. -That lead to Airbus. 40% British, 40% French and 20% German. When the launch customers (Air France Lufthansa) complained it was too big it was reduced from 300 passengers (ie A300) to 250 (ie it became A250 for a while though it reverted to A300 name). This meant the Rolls Royce RB.207 was no longer needed but the Boeing Jumbo Jet engines the FM6 and PW4000 fitted perfectly. Britain left the endevour. The Germans offered to up their share to 50% if France did the same. Later the Germans got the British back into the program by lending Hawker Siddley the interest free money to tool up with wings. To this day Airbus wings come from Britain. -The same production run issues exist with military aircraft. -Unfortunately military programs tend to become muddled with national budgets and industrai interests. -However Europe with Britain has some great companies that cooperate very well in UK, France, Germany.
3:11 A good video! one thing I was told a few years ago is that low level fast jets have det cord in the canopy simply because when they're flying low level at high subsonics speeds, they don't have time to wait for the canopy to clear the aircraft before the seat is ejected, so they go through it instead. Milliseconds count when you're doing 550kts at 200ft.
The det cord also weakens the canopy, so, should detonation fail, the pilot can still be ejected through it with comparatively minimal injury, just imagine the bolts failing on a one piece canopy...
In 77 I competed in RF against the Brit’s This was the first time we had all seen aggressive low flying. There was no way we were going down that low and it was next to impossible to get a lock on in those days as AAW was very limited by the weapons of the day and suicidal to fly down to join them with guns.
During joint exercise in the 70s, the Bucks were playing red forces attacking the USN Navy carriers and came in below flight deck height, leading to the complaint 'we are supposed to be shooting at aircraft, not submarines'
Hi was on 700Z NAS/736 NAS trials unit at Lossiemouth and then on 801 NAS on the Victorious, the thing I remember most was the bleed ducts in the wing roots -they were a nightmare. We didn’t have det cord on the hoods, there were blades on top of the ejection seats. The cockpits were ergonomic slums and as the RAF (who didn’t initially want the Buccaneer) said the only thing that could replace a buccaneer was a buccaneer with a new cockpit.😊🇬🇧
The marvellous film showing the production of this excellent aircraft show the ejection seat test on a rocket sled where the helmet of one of the dummies falls off (with the head !) slowly bouncing after the sled........
The sadf also made extensive use of buccaneers and in a book about rhe Border War in the africa at war series it was stated it was more potent than even the mirage.
Wasn't the Buckaneer the last aircraft Captain Eric " Winkle" Brown R.N worked on developing as the head of Naval test pilots at RAE Farnborough ? He said it was a magnificent aircraft I remember. And if he said it was great then it certainly was!
During an exercise I was on a Dutch destroyer when we were 'attacked' by these. Going out onto the bridge wing I watched them fly past as said goodbye looking down into the cockpits as they flew by!
Good film, although my understandimng is that the video of the lost aircraft overboard is that of a Supermarine Scimitar, piloted by the late Cmdr John Russell from 1958 and not a Buccaneer.
One of the finest aircraft we ever built I was in inverary was coast of Scotland with my father.Two bucks approached us slowly the rear one did a left roll then a right roll I remember thinking flash got but what an aircraft.
I`m surprised that you didnt mention that a war was imminent between Belize (a British Protectorate in S America,) and Guatemala who had territorial claims on Belize. Despite being on a NATO exercise in the North Sea, its aircraft carrier pulled out of the exercise and managed to get a Buccaneer flying over Belize Airport within 24 hrs therefore preventing the war. The Guatemalans didnt fancy taking on the Buccaneer. From N Sea to overflying Belize in 24 hrs....AMAZING.
It's a little worse than simply transposed. The 16 sqn badge is incorrectly labelled 15 sqn. The other badge is of 15 sqn RAF regiment completely wrong badge. 15 sqn RAF badge is completely absent.
@@michaelalder8346 Thank you for your far more insightful comment than mine. Shows the problem of only having a little knowledge on the subject. Cheers
slight mix-up here as there's no such thing as an A66 and I believe you mean a B-66 (Destroyer) a USAF Light Tactical Bomber/(Electronic/Weather) Reconnaissance version of the US Navy's A3D Skywarrior Carrier based Tactical Bomber and various developed roles such as that of a refuelling tanker of which the one in the video is one of the later EKA-3B TACOS conversions.
The flag of South Africa was not the one shown. 1994 saw the adoption of it. The ANC was not ruling that's why England cancelled further export. Harold Wilson's govt. cancelled the further export and TSR2
Unbelievable that! South African being the only Allied country on the planet with the guts to actually take on the Soviet Union on the battlefield, gets an arms embargo placed against her by Harold Wilson's communist government.
Are people still looking for the BBC Nationwide operation blue flag article? One of the most amazing pieces of film I've ever seen. Sadly, apparently, lost.
@@geoffreymee7671 I wish I could be more accurate. It's the military exercise out of nellis afb. I think it happened most years. That is Googleable. Nationwide was the evening magazine show on BBC one in the 70s. I'm guessing this was mid 70's. A squadron of Buccaneers obliterated the American defenses system. The highlight was an American airwoman sitting on the top of the defence bunker giving out a rebel yell as the Buccaneers roared overhead! Good hunting!
Was supposed to be side by side but ended up being built with a tandem arrangement. Just the opposite of the B-52. The XB-52 has tandem seats, like all B-47s.
Great video - tons of interesting, well presented information. Thanks for posting. Say 'aitch emm ess', not 'haitch emm ess' Please kick me, and all best.
May I suggest mentioning the NATO flying competitions when making your content. I have worked with RAF medics who told me an interesting story about one such competition, where the RAF arrived with Buccaneers and were laughed at by the USAF pilots for flying such slow and cumbersome aircraft. The laughing stopped, however, when one of the RAF crews flew their along an electricity transmission line, under the cables and weaving between the pylons!
the Royal Navy . . . once considered the largest navy in the world is now nothing more than a mirror image of it's former self . . . post 1945 - 1948 saw the rapid decline of Her Majesty's Navy, a legendary maritime fighting force that was second to none . . . a shoe string defense budget is not something you expect from the world's largest navy . . .
It's kind of what happens when you have to give up the massive empire gained by having the worlds largest navy because of the power struggle caused by having a massive empire and a massive navy
Mate, you need to pay more attention to detail with your graphics. At 14.21 where you display several RAF Squadron crests, the one labelled "15 Squadron" is actually the 16 Squadron crest. The one labelled "16 Squadron" is actually 15 Squadron "RAF Regiment"..... a ground Squadron, not a flying Squadron. Later at 16.05, you get the 16 Squadron correct this time but the 15 Squadron crest is 15 Squadron RAF Regiment, not the RAF flying Squadron which incidentally is always written as "XV Squadron. Also your habit of referring to Squadron 12, Squadron 15, Squadron 208 etc is completely the wrong way round. It's 12 Squadron, 15 Squadron etc. The number comes first.
Yes Alan, I have. I hosted a technical aviation website and when I did make factual errors, I was glad that people pointed them out and gave me the opportunity to correct them.
Unfortunate the Brits abandoned their homogenous aircraft industry. The govt servants responsible must’ve been given marching orders to dismantle British industry…
As always, the answer isn't some daft conspiracy. Its political short-sightedness, corporate incompetance and an inability to adapt to a changing world. The 1957 defence white paper that proposed that figher production should be cancelled in favour of ground to air rockets is in hindsight profoundly stupid. But its also easy to see why that was enticing as a cost saving measure to politicians not versed in pros and cons of air defense and wanting to look like they're trimming some unneeded 'flab' from the budget for the general public. The UK industry was also slow to modernise, meaning slow production and raised production costs. The Comet has coach built. Each airframe slightly different. An issue that would later plague the Nimrod MR4A program. (Also unlucky finding out the hard way about pressurisation cycles and fatigue) Leading to another issue in that its UK aircraft companies were small. Bristol would have sold its Brittania airliner to TWA but it just didn't have the capacity to fulfill that potential order. Merging many to form BAC was probably a smart thing to do (in concept at least) but then the lack of political will to see a project through -and constant problem in the UK where politicians fail to look beyond the next election- killed any long-term strategic planning to short-sighted cost cutting that often turned out to be more expensive in the long run. (*cough* TSR-2 to F-111K to Spey engined F-4 *cough*) This also meant that the UK had little to offer the outside world. Gone were the days it had a big empire that would slavishly buy its products (or the need of a big airforce needed to police it) and because its domestic market just wasn't big enough to sustain the increasingly high development and production costs per airframe, the UK had to go toe-to-toe with other countries to survive. Or rather, one big one: The USA. The USA has the size to sustain its own domestic aircraft industry and the wealth to fund it and politicians willing to fight to keep production. It had companies that were large enough to fulfill large production runs, tilting the economies of scale in their favour. And as the Lockheed scandal shows, they didn't always play fair.
@@chrishartley4553 you’re right. England is small. As far as daft conspiracies, I do find it counterproductive and outright suicidal, for a once homogenous nation, to lay down their children’s future to alter of multiculturalism by flooding the nation with individuals who will never assimilate.
@@chrishartley4553In fairness when we ( Britain) joined the Eu we were told ‘ You get banking , France gets agriculture and Germany get industry . It didn’t help that Germany and Japan were totally decimated after the war and rebuilt with state of the art industries with the latest most productive capacity while we were still using Victorian age machinery we could not afford to upgrade and had been patched up too many times .
@@pincermovement72 Divviying up agticulture, banking and industry like that makes no sense and was just some glib nonsense, referring to the percieved strenghts of those countries, served up for the press and public. The UK's finances post-war were atrocious and yet, still better than Germany's and Japan's. The modernisation would be something that would happen over a few decades, spreading the cost. But ultimately, with no empire left, our small national market isn't big enough to sustain a large industiral base. So we became reliant on exports. And in our own complaicency, we became uncompetative. All it takes is some investment. To make a pound you need to spend some pennies. Something the UK continues to be awful at.
Great video, however the squadron crests that you displayed showed 15 Sqn RAF Regiment, as far as I'm aware, the Regiment didn't fly the Buccaneer 😂 That said, I enjoyed the video and I shall now step down from my pedantic soap box.
Jos is a as….. hol…… his son is a big driver, Jos was nothing, I understand Max is close to his father, but here he has to be neutral and forgets his father, otherwise there is only Dutchmen there will support him , all others will ditch him… tell your father to get of the scene…..
Nobody, but nobody refers to RAF or Naval squadrons as e.g. 'Squadon 12' !!! Two digit squadrons are named as number first, i.e. 'Fifteen Suadron' three digit squadrons are ALWAYS designated as i.e. 'Eight-Oh-Nine Squadron' and NEVER as 'Eight hundred and ninth Squadron'. Obviously you have no service background or have not researched things very well. Reading a script does not excuse this.
A bit of history for you if, like me, you like all this stuff. I was originally a Tornado G1/1A navigator in the RAF. My last tour was at A&AEE Boscombe Down where we had a Buccaneer, which was used for test flying. I was sent to the then very small OCU up at RAF Lossiemouth and given a short course so I could fly our test specimen, which was painted in bright yellow! This was between 1992 and 1994, during which the RAF got rid of the Buccaneer to save money under the 'Options for Change' defence cuts after the first Gulf War. Boscombe Down kept our 'flying banana' in service, but it was eventually given its marching order. I had the privilege of being the last navigator to fly it on its final flight, which was a low level flight around Wales. The pilot was Major Rick Husband of the USAF, who was serving on Fixed Wing Test Squadron as a test pilot. Rick would later go on to become an astronaut with NASA. Sadly he was killed as the commander of the Space Shuttle Columbia on 1st Feb 2003. Despite his hi-tech background flying the F15C/E in the States, he loved flying the Buccaneer and thought it was great. It was a fitting end to a wonderful machine.
Funnily enough, there was always a lot of banter on squadrons between the Tornado guys and the ex-Buccaneer crews who ended up on the Tornado (they were known as 'WIWOBs' due the fact many of their stories would begin, 'When I was on Buccaneers'!). The WIWOBS were always saying that if only the Buccaneer airframe had been fitted with the Tornado avionics system, it would have been the perfect aircraft. Having been a nav on both, I am not sure I agree. The Tornado was better in so many ways than the Buccaneer, but the Buccaneer had an amazing bomb bay that meant you could take a huge load without the massive drag caused by stores on the Tornado. I imagine both groups of people never changed their mind, but it was always a great discussion!
Thanks for this. Always good to hear informed opinions.
Loved that story and history angus and the fulfilling chuckle thanks to u and the mates tagging WIWOBS...that's a great story, bound to frustrate some but a great chuckle here downunder. Thx
A legend. Around the Highlands it was not unusual to be driving near a loch and find oneself looking down at a Buccaneer or have one fill the rear view mirror for a couple of milliseconds. My former colleague, retired CPO Tyler, used to tell stories about having to remove fence wire that had become embedded in Buccaneer wings.
Love the Buccaneer, my favourite UK jet.
I love the Sea Vixen & the Scimitar too.
Ground effect is amazing 😊 as was the Buccaneer.
Seeing one dust a runway off and I would say at times at 5 maybe 6 ft under full control opened my eyes to aerodynamics in a big way.
British and brilliant 🇬🇧👏👏👏👏
Was it not design to ride on a cushion of air
I served at RAF Laarbruch in the 80's. when we converted to Tornado and replaced the Buccaneers. It was like losing an old friend, sure the compared to the Buccaneer the Tornado seemed like replacing an Austin 7 with a Lamborghini but the BUC was special, nothing but nothing could fly at low level like her, she was unique.
Quote from a Buc. Pilot at Red Flag .( We realised we were leaving sand trails at 10 feet, so we climbed to 20 feet ).!!
Because a higher altitude interceptor could track the trail and plan an attack.
Warms the cockles what ✌️
Fuck me 20 feet is a bit high
Remember being at an airshow at Chivenor in Devon in the early 80s when they announced that a Bucc 4 ship were in the area and would simulate an airfield attack - stunning watching one following the contours of the coastal dunes ahead of us as it barrelled towards the airfield. As it roared overhead at a ridiculously low height, the other three arrived a split second apart from the other three directions. Cue shreiks of surprise, startled looks and car alarms going off. Once the roar started to subside, we all started to laugh at how we'd been so completely monstered by the mighty Buccs. Simply wonderful memory.
My father was one of the avionic designers. He was seconded to the SAAF at Waterkloof AB when the UK government sold a number to SA in the mid to late 1960s.
Excellent. Beautiful design.
SAAF bought 16 if I recall? Back in the early 60's.
When we wanted to buy more, your Harold Wilson refused.
Unbelievable ! The only Allied country actually fighting communism and USSR expansionism, has an arms embargo placed upon her.
Anyway, by 1991 only 5 were still operational as 11 had been cannibalised. . .
@PhansiKhongoloza 'my Harold Wilson' ?
@@Bruce-1956 Sorry Bruce but you mentioned your father being seconded to the SAAF. Which suggests he was not in the SAAF. So meaning seconded from the RAF or FAA? Or the manufacturer?
@PhansiKhongoloza He was seconded from Ferranti Edinburgh which were the designers/producers (if i'm correct) of the avionics systems.
For me it was the best time of my life.
I served on the Ark Royal in the mid 70's till she paid off in 78( I think) the big boy on the flight deck was the f4 phantom and the weird kid the double propeller early warning pot bellied Gannett, but between them was the Ttail Buccaneers.....
I have great memories of the buccaneers landing on the flight deck especially at night, the pilots hitting the deck slow enough to catch the cable but just fast enough to excellerate and fly off if they miss the cable......
I can remember many flying stations in practice and exercise, but the two that stand out will stay with me forever... during a recreation day the squadrons were showing off their talents against decoy targets,I had a great view on one of the weather decks just below the flight deck with a cup of tea, I was looking for the source of a loud jet getting closer when I looked down and a pilot of a buccaneer looked up at me,he was so low he left a wake on the sea surface.I was so surprised I forgot to close my mouth and tea ran down my number 8's and I swear the pilot was laughing at me his head bobbing as if giggling.
The other was years after I left the RN and on a converted minesweeper fishing for cod with my fishing club, we were out of Hartlepool and a good way out enjoying a quiet sunny day all of us lost in thought. Out of nowhere a massive noise crashed on us, everyone hit the deck in shock, but as I looked up I saw the T-tail of a buccaneer disappointing into the distance I was so happy and excited I jumped up shouting buccaneer buccaneer buccaneer like a madman,I was so happy with being used as a target of a pilots sense of humour,he knew he would frighten the shit out of us......I loved the buccaneer
The Buccaneer was always the last card that anyone wanted when playing Top Trumps in the late 70s.
Interesting to see it getting some love.
Blackburn had actually proposed a larger, supersonic version of the Buccaneer as a substitute for the TSR.2. If the RAF had take up that idea, the RAF would have by the early 1970's a very capable low-altitude interdiction platform that would be half the cost per plane compared to the TSR.2, with about 120-150 airframes built. And it would have given Soviet war planners nightmares.
@@bfc3057 The RAF rejected the idea because they were so obsessed with the TSR.2. The design work of the TSR.2 dates from around 1956!
Jaguar entered service in 1973 and it was supersonic.
look at who benefits from these decisions....wheels within wheels...
Ultimately, u can thank the yanks for the demise of all things UK aerospace/ aviation technology progression.
Ultimately, even given the high quality of UK tech after the Second War, the yanks wanted u to buy US equipment for their economy thus stifling UK tech progression.
@@geoffreymee7671 A British White Paper at the time noted that British Aircraft had unit costs 20% higher than American due to the much larger American production runs and advised cooperation with Europe as a simultaneous launch of an airliner in UK, France and Germany would be a financial disaster for all. The same applied to military aircraft.
-That lead to Airbus. 40% British, 40% French and 20% German. When the launch customers (Air France Lufthansa) complained it was too big it was reduced from 300 passengers (ie A300) to 250 (ie it became A250 for a while though it reverted to A300 name). This meant the Rolls Royce RB.207 was no longer needed but the Boeing Jumbo Jet engines the FM6 and PW4000 fitted perfectly. Britain left the endevour. The Germans offered to up their share to 50% if France did the same. Later the Germans got the British back into the program by lending Hawker Siddley the interest free money to tool up with wings. To this day Airbus wings come from Britain.
-The same production run issues exist with military aircraft.
-Unfortunately military programs tend to become muddled with national budgets and industrai interests.
-However Europe with Britain has some great companies that cooperate very well in UK, France, Germany.
Much under appreciated kite. Glorious. 😊
3:11 A good video! one thing I was told a few years ago is that low level fast jets have det cord in the canopy simply because when they're flying low level at high subsonics speeds, they don't have time to wait for the canopy to clear the aircraft before the seat is ejected, so they go through it instead. Milliseconds count when you're doing 550kts at 200ft.
The det cord also weakens the canopy, so, should detonation fail, the pilot can still be ejected through it with comparatively minimal injury, just imagine the bolts failing on a one piece canopy...
what about low level tornado ejection?
@@AaaBbb-ff1pn the seats have booster rockets to gain minimum altitude
@@jameswaterfield i know that, i was replying to "at low altitudine there's no time to eject the canopy"
@@AaaBbb-ff1pn I see what you mean, this still means that det chord is the better alternative
In 77 I competed in RF against the Brit’s This was the first time we had all seen aggressive low flying. There was no way we were going down that low and it was next to impossible to get a lock on in those days as AAW was very limited by the weapons of the day and suicidal to fly down to join them with guns.
Great story.
During joint exercise in the 70s, the Bucks were playing red forces attacking the USN Navy carriers and came in below flight deck height, leading to the complaint 'we are supposed to be shooting at aircraft, not submarines'
Hi was on 700Z NAS/736 NAS trials unit at Lossiemouth and then on 801 NAS on the Victorious, the thing I remember most was the bleed ducts in the wing roots -they were a nightmare. We didn’t have det cord on the hoods, there were blades on top of the ejection seats. The cockpits were ergonomic slums and as the RAF (who didn’t initially want the Buccaneer) said the only thing that could replace a buccaneer was a buccaneer with a new cockpit.😊🇬🇧
The marvellous film showing the production of this excellent aircraft show the ejection seat test on a rocket sled where the helmet of one of the dummies falls off (with the head !) slowly bouncing after the sled........
Hi, a superb history of one of the best Aircraft made in the UK. Cheers, Paul.👍👍
No it’s not. It’s full of inaccuracies
@@derek6579 Well...where? tell the story pls
So many cool features in this aeroplane. Thank for the video.
Worked on these and still have the scars on my hand to prove it -- brilliant tank of an aircraft
The sadf also made extensive use of buccaneers and in a book about rhe Border War in the africa at war series it was stated it was more potent than even the mirage.
Probably the most effective low level attack aircraft ever made it would be supreme even today.I know
Wasn't the Buckaneer the last aircraft Captain Eric " Winkle" Brown R.N worked on developing as the head of Naval test pilots at RAE Farnborough ? He said it was a magnificent aircraft I remember. And if he said it was great then it certainly was!
love the buc , britains answer to the intruder
The Intruder had far more jamming modes, hence 4 crew.
Interesting side note was the picture of the partially cut up TSR2 at 9:20 showing the air intake duct geometry.
During an exercise I was on a Dutch destroyer when we were 'attacked' by these. Going out onto the bridge wing I watched them fly past as said goodbye looking down into the cockpits as they flew by!
Good film, although my understandimng is that the video of the lost aircraft overboard is that of a Supermarine Scimitar, piloted by the late Cmdr John Russell from 1958 and not a Buccaneer.
Yes it’s awful footage literally watching the Scimitar crew drown. Thankfully I don’t think the Bucc accident was so “well” filmed.
very informative and enjoyable, many thanks
York Aircraft Museum at Elvington have 3 on display along with 2 training cockpit set ups.
One of the finest aircraft we ever built I was in inverary was coast of Scotland with my father.Two bucks approached us slowly the rear one did a left roll then a right roll I remember thinking flash got but what an aircraft.
Legendary....i spoke to a US 18 pilot quote "i never saw anything fly under that beast"
I`m surprised that you didnt mention that a war was imminent between Belize (a British Protectorate in S America,) and Guatemala who had territorial claims on Belize. Despite being on a NATO exercise in the North Sea, its aircraft carrier pulled out of the exercise and managed to get a Buccaneer flying over Belize Airport within 24 hrs therefore preventing the war. The Guatemalans didnt fancy taking on the Buccaneer. From N Sea to overflying Belize in 24 hrs....AMAZING.
You won't see them at Bruntingthorpe. Cox's Motors have taken over the site and all the aircraft are gone. Its been like that for a few years.
Brilliant channel, thank you!
I noticed that you had the logos for 15 and 16 Squadrons transposed at 14:40, otherwise an excellent video.
It's a little worse than simply transposed. The 16 sqn badge is incorrectly labelled 15 sqn.
The other badge is of 15 sqn RAF regiment completely wrong badge.
15 sqn RAF badge is completely absent.
@@michaelalder8346 Thank you for your far more insightful comment than mine. Shows the problem of only having a little knowledge on the subject. Cheers
Literally the best naval strike aircraft of its day
My dad was a buccaneer technician, it's a bird I grew up in the shadow of.
Great fighter that and TSR2 my top two
Excellent stuff bro
Wonderful, thank you.
The shot of the 'Scimitar' refuelling a Bucaneer is not a Scimitar but an American A66!!
slight mix-up here as there's no such thing as an A66 and I believe you mean a B-66 (Destroyer) a USAF Light Tactical Bomber/(Electronic/Weather) Reconnaissance version of the US Navy's A3D Skywarrior Carrier based Tactical Bomber and various developed roles such as that of a refuelling tanker of which the one in the video is one of the later EKA-3B TACOS conversions.
Dill about in the falklands and a bit later too , loved the artic kit when I was a laddo
The flag of South Africa was not the one shown. 1994 saw the adoption of it. The ANC was not ruling that's why England cancelled further export. Harold Wilson's govt. cancelled the further export and TSR2
Unbelievable that! South African being the only Allied country on the planet with the guts to actually take on the Soviet Union on the battlefield, gets an arms embargo placed against her by Harold Wilson's communist government.
Wow! Thanks for bringing me up to speed on this aircraft that I have lost track of over the years. (79yo)
Great Red Flag quote, also.
🙈🙉🙊 😎 🇺🇸
Are people still looking for the BBC Nationwide operation blue flag article? One of the most amazing pieces of film I've ever seen. Sadly, apparently, lost.
if anyone ever finds it I think we wil all be so grateful.
Which year did it go to air (on Tv)?
And is the titler BBC Nationwide "operation blue flag" accurate. An accurate title and year it was aired will be most heplful.
@@geoffreymee7671 I wish I could be more accurate. It's the military exercise out of nellis afb. I think it happened most years. That is Googleable. Nationwide was the evening magazine show on BBC one in the 70s. I'm guessing this was mid 70's. A squadron of Buccaneers obliterated the American defenses system. The highlight was an American airwoman sitting on the top of the defence bunker giving out a rebel yell as the Buccaneers roared overhead! Good hunting!
@@geoffreymee7671 I hope you receive this.
Its operation RED flag from August 1977. BBC Nationwide.
Struggled with the 'Squadron 208' terminology - I've only ever heard it the other way round i.e. '208Sq' etc. Otherwise a good review of the type
Yep bloody annoying throughout the script and makes me doubt the knowledge/credibility of the author…
Interesting video.
RAF squadrons are always number first, not squadron first.
Well said - its irritating to keep hearing this despite the videos other good qualties
Shame the Bucc never received a TFR upgrade for night ops.
Spent many summer.months on the west coast of Scotland low flying route down the coast of Wester Ross
It's a shame the Bucc never equipped 617 squadron, definitely a fitting aircraft to do so
18:05 ->
How low have we fallen by just adding one letter
What about the Buccaneers v P51 during the Belize emergency
Submareen serenely submareening and something climbs to the hight of your periscope. You've just met a Buccaneer.
Side by side? Did you mean tandem?
Was supposed to be side by side but ended up being built with a tandem arrangement. Just the opposite of the B-52. The XB-52 has tandem seats, like all B-47s.
Great video - tons of interesting, well presented information. Thanks for posting.
Say 'aitch emm ess', not 'haitch emm ess' Please kick me, and all best.
Probably the only attractive Blackburn aircraft ever made.
May I suggest mentioning the NATO flying competitions when making your content. I have worked with RAF medics who told me an interesting story about one such competition, where the RAF arrived with Buccaneers and were laughed at by the USAF pilots for flying such slow and cumbersome aircraft. The laughing stopped, however, when one of the RAF crews flew their along an electricity transmission line, under the cables and weaving between the pylons!
the Royal Navy . . . once considered the largest navy in the world is now nothing more than a mirror image of it's former self . . . post 1945 - 1948 saw the rapid decline of Her Majesty's Navy, a legendary maritime fighting force that was second to none . . . a shoe string defense budget is not something you expect from the world's largest navy . . .
It's kind of what happens when you have to give up the massive empire gained by having the worlds largest navy because of the power struggle caused by having a massive empire and a massive navy
Mate, you need to pay more attention to detail with your graphics. At 14.21 where you display several RAF Squadron crests, the one labelled "15 Squadron" is actually the 16 Squadron crest. The one labelled "16 Squadron" is actually 15 Squadron "RAF Regiment"..... a ground Squadron, not a flying Squadron. Later at 16.05, you get the 16 Squadron correct this time but the 15 Squadron crest is 15 Squadron RAF Regiment, not the RAF flying Squadron which incidentally is always written as "XV Squadron. Also your habit of referring to Squadron 12, Squadron 15, Squadron 208 etc is completely the wrong way round. It's 12 Squadron, 15 Squadron etc. The number comes first.
Have you any other criticism for the poor chap, have you actually tried to create anything and post it for the enjoyment of others..
@@alanwayte432
Nothing wrong with correcting someone. It’s important to get names and forms of address correct especially regarding the armed forces.
... boring!
Yes Alan, I have. I hosted a technical aviation website and when I did make factual errors, I was glad that people pointed them out and gave me the opportunity to correct them.
It's ai generated BS
Still think the SAAF livery was the coolest
Unfortunate the Brits abandoned their homogenous aircraft industry. The govt servants responsible must’ve been given marching orders to dismantle British industry…
As always, the answer isn't some daft conspiracy. Its political short-sightedness, corporate incompetance and an inability to adapt to a changing world.
The 1957 defence white paper that proposed that figher production should be cancelled in favour of ground to air rockets is in hindsight profoundly stupid. But its also easy to see why that was enticing as a cost saving measure to politicians not versed in pros and cons of air defense and wanting to look like they're trimming some unneeded 'flab' from the budget for the general public.
The UK industry was also slow to modernise, meaning slow production and raised production costs. The Comet has coach built. Each airframe slightly different. An issue that would later plague the Nimrod MR4A program. (Also unlucky finding out the hard way about pressurisation cycles and fatigue)
Leading to another issue in that its UK aircraft companies were small. Bristol would have sold its Brittania airliner to TWA but it just didn't have the capacity to fulfill that potential order. Merging many to form BAC was probably a smart thing to do (in concept at least) but then the lack of political will to see a project through -and constant problem in the UK where politicians fail to look beyond the next election- killed any long-term strategic planning to short-sighted cost cutting that often turned out to be more expensive in the long run. (*cough* TSR-2 to F-111K to Spey engined F-4 *cough*)
This also meant that the UK had little to offer the outside world. Gone were the days it had a big empire that would slavishly buy its products (or the need of a big airforce needed to police it) and because its domestic market just wasn't big enough to sustain the increasingly high development and production costs per airframe, the UK had to go toe-to-toe with other countries to survive. Or rather, one big one: The USA.
The USA has the size to sustain its own domestic aircraft industry and the wealth to fund it and politicians willing to fight to keep production. It had companies that were large enough to fulfill large production runs, tilting the economies of scale in their favour. And as the Lockheed scandal shows, they didn't always play fair.
@@chrishartley4553 you’re right. England is small. As far as daft conspiracies, I do find it counterproductive and outright suicidal, for a once homogenous nation, to lay down their children’s future to alter of multiculturalism by flooding the nation with individuals who will never assimilate.
@@chrishartley4553In fairness when we ( Britain) joined the Eu we were told ‘ You get banking , France gets agriculture and Germany get industry . It didn’t help that Germany and Japan were totally decimated after the war and rebuilt with state of the art industries with the latest most productive capacity while we were still using Victorian age machinery we could not afford to upgrade and had been patched up too many times .
@@pincermovement72 Divviying up agticulture, banking and industry like that makes no sense and was just some glib nonsense, referring to the percieved strenghts of those countries, served up for the press and public.
The UK's finances post-war were atrocious and yet, still better than Germany's and Japan's.
The modernisation would be something that would happen over a few decades, spreading the cost. But ultimately, with no empire left, our small national market isn't big enough to sustain a large industiral base. So we became reliant on exports. And in our own complaicency, we became uncompetative.
All it takes is some investment. To make a pound you need to spend some pennies. Something the UK continues to be awful at.
Ah! the Blackburnana....
Looks like it could take literal hits from ground to air weaponry & still make it back! Very rugged plane.
What's a Bookeneer.
use in real war deployments? or just cold war games?
it was used (by britian) in the gulf war and agaisnt lebanon, it was also used to scare Guatemala to keep it from attacking
The Buccaneer, an aircraft designed for pilot that got nose bleeds if they flew over 50 feet.
Compare its stumpy vertical stabilizer to the tall one of the Tornado.
An upgraded Buccaneer would be far better than an F35
Well, it would have had to have been heavily upgraded indeed - but, yeah, your point still stands!
🤣🤣🤣🤣
Also available in pink.
Didn't realise this even existed, British had some great jets what happened)/?
The Americans took all our money while forgiving Germany and Japan theirs .
It’s complicated world “power-play” economics but in a nutshell we were perfectly legally but quite deliberately bankrupted by the US.
Great video, however the squadron crests that you displayed showed 15 Sqn RAF Regiment, as far as I'm aware, the Regiment didn't fly the Buccaneer 😂
That said, I enjoyed the video and I shall now step down from my pedantic soap box.
Why r u trying to repeat the history of this aircraft which has been done many times by pilots who have flown the Mk1 & 2
I get annoyed by people who say haitch instead of aitch. Sorry.
Wasted on the crabs
ARTF
Jos is a as….. hol…… his son is a big driver, Jos was nothing, I understand Max is close to his father, but here he has to be neutral and forgets his father, otherwise there is only Dutchmen there will support him , all others will ditch him… tell your father to get of the scene…..
Nobody, but nobody refers to RAF or Naval squadrons as e.g. 'Squadon 12' !!!
Two digit squadrons are named as number first, i.e. 'Fifteen Suadron' three digit squadrons are ALWAYS designated as i.e. 'Eight-Oh-Nine Squadron' and NEVER as 'Eight hundred and ninth Squadron'.
Obviously you have no service background or have not researched things very well. Reading a script does not excuse this.
shore got the taxpayers money worth with the plane
The one time Blackburn didn't make a kind of crap plane.
Misuse of the word impact!
Poor journalism, a Sea Hawk is not a Buccaneer. Back to your Mum’s house son.
12 Squadron, not Squadron 12...or any other bloody number!😡