Blackburn Buccaneer S2B 208 Sqn RAF Red Flag Exercise 1977
This is a kit I have always wanted to build: and being the lucky owner of Airfix twin kit it was time to start.
Having done lots of research about the kit I knew it was going to fight me, but armed with knowledge I decided to go all the way.
The flying brick is the last all British combat aircraft and what a bird it is. Built for the Royal Navy as a low level strike fighter its
innovative design and shape made it a world leader and the best for ultra low level sorties above sea and land. Adopted by the RAF
the Buccaneer went to the US for the 1st time in 1977 with 208 Sqn. They applied a temporary desert scheme but found the back wash from the powerful Rolls Royce Spay engines made a mess at the rear. This led to an unusual and striking scheme as they left the rear fuselage in the standard temprate scheme.
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The Red Flag exercise was a total
success for the Buccaneer it smashed through every defense put in front of it and made history as not one Buccaneer was intercepted throughout the whole exercise. It astounded all of our allies and just showed that the RAF had a world beating aircraft that could be flown by our pilots at heights no one else was prepared to attempt.
XV352 was one of those aircraft. I wanted to show it off as best as possible so I cut out the access panels for the Spey engine on the port side and fully scratch built the engine. I did the same for the rotating bomb bay and wheel wells too.