Ulster Aviation Society open day - 28

Image: © Kenneth Allen Taken: 15 Sep 2024

One of the European Heritage events held in various locations in Northern Ireland Buccaneer S2B, XV361 The type was designed by the Blackburn company and first flown during the 1950s as the NA. 39, to meet a Royal Navy requirement for a strike aircraft to operate close to the speed of sound at very low level - hence its rugged construction. This particular example, XV361, was the last of a batch of 30 of the S.2 version ordered in 1966 and delivered in March 1968 to the RN where it served on HMS Eagle and HMS Ark Royal. In 1978 it was one of about 60 Buccaneers modified for service with the RAF where it was based at Lossiemouth in Scotland and employed in the anti-shipping role In 1983 it was one of six Buccaneers temporarily detached to Cyprus to support the Army on UN peacekeeping duties in Lebanon. The type eventually equipped five RAF squadrons. XV361 having served with Nos 12 and 208, when the RAF decided that the Buccaneer era was at an end, the No 15 Sqn marking was applied to XV361 in 1994 merely as part of the farewell celebrations. Subsequently XV361 was bought by the Society and flown to RAF Aldergrove on 5 April 1994 (from where it was planned to take it by road to join the aircraft collection at Langford Lodge) but 13 days later it was flown there. In the process a record was established, the flight of 92 seconds' duration being the shortest normal flight ever by a Buccaneer. Buccaneers were among the RAF aircraft deployed to Saudi Arabia in January 1991 to take part in Operation Desert Storm, the United Nations military action to liberate Kuwait from its illegal occupation by the armed forces of Iraq. Named "banana jets" in service parlance because of their vaguely banana-shaped appearance, the specific role of the Buccaneers was to provide secondary laser designation of targets for Tornados - which were not so equipped at the time - as well as to designate targets similarly for their own bombs, to regain for the RAF the pinpoint accuracy lost because of the tactical change from low to medium-level bombing. One of the "Buccs" which took part was XW547, named Guinness Girl, from No 12 Squadron. Her commander, Ulsterman Squadron Leader Norman Browne, spearheaded a number of highly successful attacks on vital targets in Iraq and Kuwait. For his part in the action, Norman was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. With his wife Irene, Norman travelled from the squadron's base at RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland in October 1991 to talk to the Ulster Aviation Society about his contribution to Desert Storm.

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