Blackburn AB-2 Buccaneer

[TomZ]

Blackburn AB-2 Buccaneer



In the early 1960s the US Marines started looking around for an attack aircraft that could carry a heavier load than the Douglas A-4 then in use. After looking at several US built aircraft in 1962 they decided to go the UK and buy the Blackburn Buccaneer The first Buccaneers were delivered in 1963 and received the designation AB-1 Buccaneer. It was followed by the AB-2 which was later re-designated as the A-8.







Model: Airfix 1/72

[PR19_Kit]

I LOVE it, beats hell out of the A6. 

[Rheged]

Nicely done!   Not so much a What If  as a Should Have Been

[chrisonord]

Very nice, I bet they would have loved to having Buccaneers in real life too.

[Rick Lowe]

Good job. 

And typical Marines-style nose art...   

[kerick]

Very nice! That would have been wild. It would have made some Congressmen flip out!

[Charlie_c67]

Very nice, I bet they would have loved to having Buccaneers in real life too.

Can you imagine the competitions over who could fly lower? We all know how well that worked when the USAF tried to play that game with the Vulcan...

[PR19_Kit]

The RAF did take their Buccs to the Red Flag exercises. And it worked just the same as with the Vulcans, their normal operational height was about 1000 ft below the USAF's 'hard deck'.

[Charlie_c67]

As well as taking out some chasing fighters with a very unconventional defensive move I believe 

[Rheged]

As well as taking out some chasing fighters with a very unconventional defensive move I believe 

Yes!  plan A was to drop a  retarded 1000lb bomb; the so called dropping the knickers defence.  Plan B was to load the clamshell rear airbrake with multiple sheets of  local Lossiemouth newsprint.  When the airbrake was momentarily slightly opened, the pursuing aircraft was engulfed in copies of the Aberdeen Press and Journal (Banff and Buckie edition) which could cause foreign object ingestion and other associated nausea.

[chrisonord]

Very nice, I bet they would have loved to having Buccaneers in real life too.

Can you imagine the competitions over who could fly lower? We all know how well that worked when the USAF tried to play that game with the Vulcan...

if they took it to Vietnam,  it would need a strimmer attachment on it too.

[Old Wombat]

    

I like it!       

[jcf]

It's cool, but I don't see the Admirals going for it because the USMC doesn't
get any flying things unless the Navy says yes. They have no independent
purchasing authority in regards to aviation.

[jcf]

The RAF did take their Buccs to the Red Flag exercises. And it worked just the same as with the Vulcans, their normal operational height was about 1000 ft below the USAF's 'hard deck'.

The lack of interception that occured, in some scenarios but not all, was because the
US Aggressor units were limited to using Soviet style air defense rules, which was, of
course, the entire point of the exercise. Of course that's been expanded since the end
of the Cold War. If you read the accounts by Bucc pilots, when the US aggressors were
"let off the leash", instead of having to play Soviets, the situation changed. It seems that
a lot of people don't seem to grasp the intent of Red Flag. It's not a contest. Nor were the
Yanks ever embarassed by the times that the Buccs or Vulcans got through the ersatz
Soviet defenses. Again because it's the point of the exercises, get in and blow up the 
bad guys while avoiding getting blown up yourself.

[zenrat]

It might not have been planned as a contest but I can't see two groups of men ever accepting that.  Everything is a contest if men are involved.   

I'm trying to visualise a Bucc in USAF SEA camo.  Any one here built or drawn one?