Blackburn Buccaneer

what is it?

The Blackburn Buccaneer is a British carrier-capable attack aircraft designed in the 1950s for the Royal Navy (RN). Designed and initially produced by Blackburn Aircraft at Brough, it was later officially known as the Hawker Siddeley Buccaneer when Blackburn became a part of the Hawker Siddeley Group, but this name is rarely used. The Buccaneer was originally designed in response to the Soviet Union introducing the Sverdlov class of light cruisers.

🔎How to recognise it: 2 jet engines · mid-wing aircraft · retractable tricycle gear · 13.4 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 1,074 km/htop speed
• range 3,704 kmwithout refuelling
• size 28.1 tmax take-off weight
• built 211made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 68 years ago, in 1958.
• 🏎️Top speed is 8.3× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 13.4 m: about 3 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🐘Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 5 African elephants (~6 t each).
• 🌍Range of 3,704 km: 21× Amsterdam to Brussels.
• 🏔️Can fly 1.4× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).

jet: Gas turbine pushing air out the back (turbofan or turbojet): fast and high-flying.

spec sheet

first flight

1958-04-30

introduced

1962

retired

1994

status

retired

number built

211

role

maritime strike aircraft

origin

🇬🇧 United Kingdom

makers

Blackburn Aircraft

engines

2× Rolls-Royce Spey Mk.101

crew

2

length

19.3 m

wingspan

13.4 m

height

5 m

max take-off weight

28.1 t

top speed

1,074 km/h

range

3,704 km

ceiling

12,192 m

wings

mid-wing aircraft

landing gear

retractable tricycle gear

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.