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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0089.PDF
FLIGHT, 20 January 1961 89 .uid rapidly- Divergent flutter must be avoided at all costs. . . ."Features like the use of ailerons as blown flaps, enabling the aircraft to be brought in at high thrust and facilitating power ofmanoeuvre at speeds close to the stall, and the installation of lamshell air-brakes at the tail-end of the fuselage, emphasize theSeverely pragmatic quality of Buccaneer design. During develop- ment flying, the tail of some of the aircraft has been modified by•he addition of a bullet-shaped projection sprouting from the fin it the point where the tailplane is mounted. Such a change can-•ot be said to spoil the lines of the Buccaneer, whose beauty is a •natter of opinion. As Flight wrote in 1958, "the area ruling is. o pronounced as to be almost grotesque." But clearly, if an aircraft •- built for a specific military purpose which involves high speed• t levels below radar coverage, aerobatic capability in a LABS manoeuvre, and ability to take-off from and land on carriers, beauty>f line must needs be subservient to aerodynamic efficiency and constructional toughness. Changes in the Buccaneer's appearancejuring its development have resulted from liaison and exchange of deas between the Blackburn design staff at Brough and the flyingpersonnel at Holme. On the desk occupied by J. G. Burns in the Blackburn testpilots' office is a model he has made of the Buccaneer, depicted carrying an air-to-surface missile. This equipment may or maynot be significant, but it typifies the kind of operational thinking inevitably done by those engaged in developing a new militaryaircraft. In the model cockpits are a pilot and observer, the two-man team which forms the operational element in Navalaircraft like the Sea Vixen and Buccaneer. Buccaneers are due to enter Naval service early this year withthe formation of 700Z Flight, the Royal Navy's Intensive Flying Trials Unit, at RNAS Lossiemouth. Incorporating as it does somany new ideas, the Buccaneer has had a comparatively short development period, as military aircraft go these days; for it isless than three years since the NA.39 made its first flight at Bedford (April 30, 1958). When recently there were reports oflarger engines being installed in the machine, the Civil Lord of the Admiralty, Mr C. I. Orr-Ewing, referred to its D.H. Gyron Juniorsin a statement at Brough during last November in these terms: Three Blackburn flight test observers: from left to right, Mike Bailey, Neville Graham and Gordon Copeman "The present engines bring the aircraft fully up to specification."He added that the aircraft had ''quite a lot of development stretch" within its design—presumably a reference to more power-ful engines. Mr Orr-Ewing went on to say that it was believed that thecauses of the two Buccaneer accidents had been correctly analysed, and they did not affect the Admiralty's confidence in the machine.He added: "We believe this is a first-class aircraft. Flying and deck-landing trials have been highly satisfactory and the soonerthe Navy get it, the better." "Flight" photographs, with the exception of the picture above
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