In discussing the early Blackburn Buccaneers, mention of the de Havilland Gyron Junior engines is essential. Just as there is not much dispute that the aircraft was better at its job than anything else flying at the time, and a great credit to its designers, few will deny that the powerplants were woefully inadequate. They were selected because there was nothing else then available to meet delivery targets. It was a political decision that was to put at risk both aircraft and aircrew, and partially explains an attrition rate in service which far exceeded, in percentage terms, that of the much-publicised 'widow-maker', the F-104 Starfighter of the Federal German Air Force. I should hasten to add that it did not make anything like as many widows, largely because of the splendid job done by the Martin-Baker company which provided an escape system for those occasions when the Buccaneer crew ran out of height, airspeed, ideas and enthusiasm all at once.
展开▼
