Suggs mate i fully agree with you :), the Bucc was phernominal in what it was designed to do :). The Navy didn’t call it the low level tosser for nothing :).
Royal Naval Buccs were in much better condition than the RAF’s in general. There were a few cases in where Buccs were sent from one force to the other, and the RAF’s efforts were not up to scratch on the Navy, all due to the up keep to keep off the effects of the salt water. My father spent alot of his Naval carrer on these aircraft and he said the amount of attention they recieved was astronomical. The flight deck of the carriers (as like todays) had spray jets in it and they would shower the aircraft in fresh clean water with the engines running to clean them out as much as possibe, then afterwards the hose pipes came out to get the missed bits.
This aircraft imo was the best aircraft for low level, its whole shape was designed for it. The tapering of the fuselarge as it went to the tail end was allow the sound waves to “pip” it along thus allowing the engines to run at lower speeds and thus make less noise. Also it could sit just behind the speed of sound and have perfect handling. Plus you couldnt here it until it was right on top of you by which time would be too late 🙂
There are a couple of accounts told to me by my Father that do this superb aircraft wonderful justice:
A buccaneer was on a fleet exercise which was to test the radar capabilites of the fleet. This entailed the aircraft to fly off anywhere the pilot wanted and to simulate a mock attack on the fleet. During this exercise the crew were on the flight deck of the carrier the Bucc was launched from trying to ge visuals on it. Which they did- when the jet passed right next to the ship BELOW the level of the slight deck at its attack speed of 650 mph. The crew were looking down on to the top of the Bucc. I’d love to see another aircraft try this and do so well as the Buccaneer
Also a Bucc took part with the US Top gun school in where it was pitted against the Top Gun jets to see what was the better at low level stuff. Now i think the test took part in an area full of ravines and such like – buccaneer country. The US radar opperators were able to watch the Bucc do its thing and they couldnt beleive what they were seeing on the radar- they thougt it was a system error. The had to get a visual on the Bucc to actually see and believe for theselves what they were seeing on the radar. The US pilots were very impressed to say the least :).
For those of you who dont know the Buccaneer posesses a Dopler radar or similar which enables it to scan the terrain a head and to follow the contors of the land while keeping a parallel direction of travel with the land. I dont know about modern radar systems too well, but for 30 odd years ago that sounds pretty impressive to me 🙂
So yes modernise the Bucc and bring it back, the same with the Vulcan. Blair are you reading this? :D. Hell why not just bring back Britains golden age of combat jets? 🙂
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