125 - Blackburn Buccaneer 

This is one of the THE funniest episodes! Gotta have him back on the show for the Jaguar episode!

I was 10 years old on a frontline fighter squadron during the cold war in west Germany. I used to watch the Buccaneer along with the Tornado taking off and landing all day. My dad was in the RAF and we were based there for 3 years. I love the Buccaneer.

Love the Buccaneer!! ♥️♥️. Growing up in the Highlands of Scotland, I would regularly see Buccs streaking up the loch at around 20'3" 😂 Saw 2 Phantoms try to catch one once. No chance 😃

Fantastic interview would love to have Captain Sullivan back to discuss his time in the Jaguar. Was amazing to hear more about the Buccaneer and the challenges the pilots faced with it.

Hey Jello! Great podcast!! My Dad was a senior pilot on the Buccaneer in the Navy… Over 300 deck landings.. He loved it, still talks about it regularly, best aircraft he’s ever flown! All the best! 👍

Interestingly Rowland White actually does have a book about the Buccaneer, it's called 'Phoenix Squadron' and describes a 1972 mission in which a couple of Buccaneers from HMS Ark Royal flew a 1000+ mile mission as a show of force to dissuade Guatemala from invading British Honduras. It also has many chapters describing in great detail Royal Navy carrier operations in the 1960s and 70s so it's a great read.

Oh gosh I just found this!...the greats keep coming. The 'Buckie" was an interesting plane from its conception to retirement. The Royal Navy found plenty for it to do and the RAF got it working too. Thanks, Vince and John! I love this plane! There's actually a terrific doco or two here on RU-vid about this beastie...super interesting. John, you need the handle "DeathDealer"..that's pretty 'Bad Arse"...Vince, take care, mate and wishing you the best with any scud you're flying through at the moment.

Rolland White has already written a book about Buccaneers called "Phoenix Squadron". It centres about the conflict in Belize during 1972. Fantastic book, well worth a read. To see some surviving conditions of Buccaneers, I highly recommend RNAS Yeovilton's Fleet Air Arm museum in Somerset in the UK...That place is where my love of aviation came from and it is a fantastic museum

That was one of the best interviews you've done. I learned a lot about the Buccaneer. Please bring him back for the Jaguar. He was very informative and funny! Keep up the good work, now how about the C-5 Galaxy!

I love design process of Buccaneer in Blackburn Co. Designer already draw radome but been asked for bigger fuselage- sod it, we attach it anyway he said. We need bomb bay can you make it flush ? - hmm. one extra bulge will not harm clean lines of our project . And so one and one 😊

Great interview, he is fascinating and that dry sense of humour:). I remember asking my uncle - who was in the SAAF at the time - if he could fly anything in the SAAF what would it be? Thinking he'd say Mirage III or Mirage F1CZ/AZ. He said "Buccaneer" without hesitation. Apparently It was amazing at low level during the Angolan conflict.

I can remember JS as a pleasant young man, when we very first strapped him into one of our (12 sqn) jets. Seems like he went on t have a great career

That intro is the best, goose bumps all over.

Great interview, would love to hear John’s stories on the ‘Jag’. Look forward to the interview with Ian Black he flew some great aircraft and has great stories 👍🏻

Hands down best interview to date. I really hope we hear more from John he was awesome he was entertaining every second and did a great job teaching about a aircraft I had no clue existed

the mighty brick!

Great podcast!!!! Have always loved the Buccaneer, and Captain Sullivan was great!!! Unreal it's been 30 years since he flew the plane and still knew it inside and out, so cool. Thanks Jello!!!👍😊🔥🔥

The Buccaneer was awesome at the airshows, the fast passes were 'just' subsonic and the aircraft was built like a brick outhouse so it fluffed like crazy with water vapour in the rather moist British summer skies :)

There's a Buccaneer at a petrol station in Elgin by RAF Lossiemouth where they were based.

This has made my weekend! An episode on one of my favourite aircraft, thanks for doing one on the banana bomber!

This was an awesome interview, would be neat to have him back for the Jaguar too. Both aircraft would be neat to have in DCS World, and live on in the virtual world. The Spey engines were used in the Thrust SSC landspeed vehicle record, so quite versatile. Would be neat to have some of the pilots discuss their experiences landing the Buccaneer on the ship. The few videos available look pretty hairy. Another great podcast Jello, enjoy the break and take care!

So much personality in this interview!

My favourite plane by my favourite podcast? Doesn't get better than this.

For a better idea of antics of the RAF Buccaneer force, have a look at this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lteL18wd15Y.html Have a look at 2:32. For reference the bridge wing of a Type 42 is about 10m above the waterline. As JS says, "Not lower than the leader".

JS did the best job describing every detail during this podcast. I closed my eyes and pictured the aircraft almost perfectly before looking up what the buccaneer looked like.

Hey Jell-O, we'll miss your good natured enthusiasm, have some happy holidays and catch up with you in the New Year!

Thank you for recording this entertaining and informative interview for us.

Who doesn't love the flying banana. The flying brick was great bird.

This was one of the best. I have never laughed on this podcast like this before.

US F-15 pilots could not even track Bucs during Redflag the first few times, they only way to track them, was to look for the dust they kicked up........ A USAF pilot spotted an RAF Vulcan @ less than 200 ft. Thinking it would be an easy target he descended to engage but before he could get into position the contact broke and two Buccaneers emerged from under the Vulcan and they all took off in different directions and left the attacker for dust. The Americans were so impressed that they went down the line in the middle of the night and painted red stars on the Bucc's.

A great episode. Thanks.Have 1 book by Ian Allan on the Buccaneer. Really good to listen to a pilot share his experience.

Just to add a few clarifications to this outstanding interview...In a part life, I was a Naval Aircrewman and worked in Operations in the "logs & records" office as my dreaded collateral duty. We were responsible for literally filling in the pilots logbooks ( in No. 2 pencil ), and also logging Naval Aircrewman's ETLs ( Enlisted Time Log ), generating monthly reports and also assisting the preparation of the daily flight schedule. Suffice it to say, this was a VERY labor intensive job at the time ( pre-computer ). The pilots would come in at the end of the month to verify their flight times and then sign each month off with a U.S. Gov't pen ( black ink ONLY ). There were various "flight purpose codes" that we also tracked to make sure the various mission qualifications were maintained ( Torp drops, OWAH, SAR, etc...) FPCs would have a three letter alpha-numeric; 2K2 for example was a Functional Checkflight after maintenance was accomplished. Needless to say, I despised this job, but it was an important one, and had "high-viz" with "old man" ( Commanding Officer ). As a very young E-5 at the time, I had the responsibility to make sure that all these times were correct and the reports and correspondence to our "type commander" was CORRECT. To this end, I also had to liaison with our Maintenance Admin analyst to correct errors on the "yellow sheets" filled out by the HAC ( Helicopter Aircraft Commander ). It was always a bit tedious to have to do this part of the job, but I had the full support of the OPS "O" and the skipper to get these officers "corrected" on how to correctly fill-out paperwork! As far as the airlines...So, moving forward, I became an airline pilot and as a function of personally logging flight-time that was the individual pilots responsibility. However, it was also a part of the company to also track your duty time and flight time. We used a software program called "crew trac" for the company to handling our scheduling for our "pairings" as we called them. Early-on we had a "can" ( an aluminum binder for the aircraft logbook and other documents used in flight ). The Captain was responsible for the logbook being filled out correctly to reflect our "OOOI" ( out and off, on and in times ). This data was important for both maintenance and pilot times, as well as used for statistical analysis to submit to the DoT for schedule reliability. Moving forward more...I later flew two types that have "ACARS".

Great interview. A lot of fun.Thank you!

Used to look down on the bucs running in on the range at rosehearty every day as a kid.

Trivia: This jet was used in a Top Gun parody music video as a stand-in for the F-14. The song is called "Switch It On" by Will Young (who portrays Tom Cruise's Maverick in the MV)

What a great interview. Thank you gents!

great podcast im a big fan of the buccaneer loved this episode . Side note my father worked at the factory building buccaneers so i have a link to the old buccaneer . does anyone know the title of the fiction book mr john sullivan mentioned as ive not heared about it and would love to read it ?

The old BBC documentary Sailor has a good number of clips of buccaneers flying off of Britain’s last CATOBAR carrier, Ark Royal (RO9). You can see a buccaneer, along with some phantoms, trapping aboard Ark Royal in this episode of Sailor: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6YPpAR1Swok.html It’s a great old documentary series.

Loved listening to the Buc stories and cant wait for Blackie talking about the Lightning! Keep up the good work Jell-O

That was fantastic

Good interview, a very enjoyable way to pass an hour or so! Regarding the Buccaneer, it's worth mentioning that it was a direct British cousin of the Phantom. Both aircraft flew for the first time in 1958 only a month apart and were very similar in size though not in role. Despite (or because of) being a Brit, I am generally fairly sceptical of post-WWII British aircraft. They have a terrible tendency of being slow to reach operational service so, no matter how advanced a concept they are when we start work on them, they tend to be very rapidly superceded by other nation's aircraft on entering service. However Buccaneer is one of those few times when we actually got it right and introduced a very capable, very advanced aircraft into service at exactly the right time.

Great interview!

im so looking forward to this.... thank you ☺

Great interview! 👍

Never heard ir seen this plane. Good episide

Have him back on for the Jaguar! This guy is a cool cat no pun intended. Edit* I found myself coming back to this episode. Definitely one of the most interesting and incredibly entertaining interviews you have done to date Jell-O. Please have him back on for the Jag-You-Ahr! Your guys rapport with each other was absolutely awesome.

There's a great book called "Bucaneer Boys", it includes the stories you don't necceserilly read in the history books hehe

Another great episode. Don't think it was mentioned but the bamb bay was of the rotary type so no bomb by doors. Also Google picture's of the brick ready to be catapulted of the deck, looks very odd with its front wheel a foot or more of the deck.

21 years old flying a nuclear strike bomber. Let that sink in. Wow.

They flew off Hermes, Eagle and Ark Royal.

Love the Thicc Bucc. Used to cause havoc at Red Flag

Question for an episode. How much time in reality, does a fighter pilot get on a routine training mission to just sit and appreciate the extraordinary scenery and the experience of flight? Is it three hours of searching dials and displays, running checklists and stress or is there any opportunity to enjoy, peacefully, the privilege of being in control of a jet fighter?

The intro... 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻

Correct! HMS Ark Royal was the last one aircraft carrier with conventional Style.

Fun show.. Previously, you clicked with Bruce so well... hoping to hear you collaborate again another time or 12! Good stuff.

Correct me if I’m mistaken, but I believe that Rolls Royce Spey engine was what the British RAF used in their Phantoms.

NICE!

New subscriber. have loved this .

The standing joke was always that the Bucc was the only military aircraft that would leave the carrier and descend to cruising altitude.

There are three Buccaneers, currently for sale. All located in South Africa.

SEPECAT Jaguar? Yes please!

The Buccaneer guys have now relocated from Bruntingthorp to the Cotswold Airport, keeping the Buccaneer's alive.

Thanks Jello :-) this will be good.

Jello, how do you find such great guests for the podcasts? Awesome work

So you say in a perfect world, you would like a USN Raptor fly for the Navy.

What a cool aircraft! The Brits sure knew how to design them. Hmm, a famous Japanese fighter from WWII. My brains registering a zero on this one.

Maybe I missed it, but I thought the whole idea about the area rule design was to facilitate better supersonic performance. So why did they bother with it in a subsonic strike aircraft?

Just listened to this for a second time can john be a permanent fixture as the RAF correspondent

In the intro how can the pilots hear the radio with those warnings so loud?

Did he arrive after Pulsator where the Buccs flew 'through' Beirut?

not "firestreak", "streaker".

LET EM GO LOOK UP THE HUGE GEAR...OK IM BACK

You gotta love the Brits! 🇬🇧👍🏼

New term to describe my sex life: high speed taxiing.

The F105 had a far higher Mach limit at sea level.b

Ok, let me see... F14, AJ37, MiG23, Mi24, Mirage F1, F4U, F8, Tu22 the Blinder version... and then there it is I guess, the Buccaneer... it's not top three, maybe not top five but definitely among the most attractive airframes ever, if a module ever comes up for DCS, I'm all in for it... it's just another all singing and dancing user unfriendly electric jet, and no I don't dare to touch any of the older supersonic death machines that came before these 50s 60s dream machines, I still fail to fathom the sheer guts it would take to strap yourself to something that could do mach 2.5 and barely stay in a straight line with maximum effort, and then go to war with it... I'm definitely not that brave...

I seem to recall that the raf/rn sent the buccaneers to red flag a couple of times