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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 0489.PDF
...' 1" "•'- . .... 467 ffl wuilonal, ip '963 r*L NA vy - 1 BUCCANEER An Outstanding Strike Aeroplane BY THE TECHNICAL EDITOR DURING the past ten years military aircraft have become increasingly vulnerable to interception by missiles. This vulnerability cannot be countered by increasing flight speed and altitude, and the only way left to penetrate hostile airspace is to hug the ground. Today even an aeroplane equipped with a full range of electronic and thermal countermeasures cannot expect to last more than a few seconds once it has ventured within range of an enemy surface-launched or air-launched guided weapon. But at tree-top height the performance of surface radars is de graded, and it may be possible for the attacker to find the target, strike it and escape within the reaction time of defending missile systems. Aircraft vulnerability would be reduced by making the attack a '< supersonic speed. But the higher the speed of the aircraft, the greater are the problems involved in flying close to the ground and m identifying and accurately striking the target. Moreover, flight at even Mach 1.2 at sea level requires several times the fuel con s'unption at high subsonic speed; and it is exceedingly hard on -•oth airframe and crew. There is also a minimum height below *hich it is impracticable to fly at high speed and the aircraft is thus virtually driven into a corner, as portrayed graphically on this Page. Today this transonic, tree-top mission profile is attracting the attention of every major air force. Urgent development pro lamines have been put in hand to find the surest way of striking a point target under such conditions without exposing the aircraft l o the vulnerable height reached in a LABS manoeuvre. Even strate gy bombers originally designed to lead a gentle life in the strato sphere are now being pressed into this kind of work. But 13 years ago the importance of low-level operations had been appreciated only by very few. Some of these far-seeing people were to be found among the uniformed and civilian staff at the Admiralty. While fighting raged in Korea, they began to formulate requirements for a carrier- based bomber for the Royal Navy. In retrospect it appears that this Naval Staff thinking was years ahead of that of any other Western organization, and it ultimately led to the drafting of the NA.39 specification which was then issued to the industry. Among the dozen or sc companies which submitted tenders was Blackburn Aircraft Ltd, of Brough, East Yorkshire. Their project Simplified diagram indicating major factors governing choice of speed and altitude for low-level strike (in the present state of the art) TOO MUCH :'•' CANNOT FOLLOW BUFFETING BRl CONTOURS 600- £500 ~400 X 300 UJ 200- 100H hi II II II » i I1!1 !;i TOO MUCH WARNING OF APPROACH 1111 p 11, i 11111 1 • ' ' ! 111,1 11111 11111 i i i i i 1''' i i i iii iii i'ri.[-'f?' "ir'SMiimmm^me^i rvs 1-n 1.»S O.f
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