Blackburn Buccaneer – Low Level, High Impact

Getting some unwanted help with this one.

An unmistakably British Cold War aircraft

The Buccaneer has never had the outright speed or glamour normally associated with aircraft such as the Lightning, Phantom or later Tornado, but that's part of what makes it so interesting to paint. Its swollen fuselage, small canopy, area-ruled shape and heavily loaded wings give it an appearance unlike almost anything else.

It was also remarkably long-lived. Conceived during the 1950s, the prototype first flew in 1958, yet the Buccaneer remained in RAF service until 1994. Despite originally being regarded by the RAF as an interim solution, it went on to serve for decades and eventually saw combat during the 1991 Gulf War.

There are few aircraft more associated with low-level flying than the Blackburn Buccaneer. It was an aircraft designed from the outset to fly fast and low, using terrain and the curvature of the earth to help keep it below enemy radar. That characteristic style of flying was what I wanted to capture in this painting.

From the Royal Navy to the RAF

The Buccaneer had originally been developed for the Royal Navy as a carrier-based, low-level maritime strike aircraft, entering Fleet Air Arm service in the early 1960s. As Britain's large aircraft carriers disappeared, former naval Buccaneers transferred to the RAF, alongside aircraft built specifically for RAF service. The type eventually became an important part of the RAF's maritime strike capability.

No. 12 Squadron became particularly closely associated with this role. During the Cold War, the potential threat posed by increasingly capable Soviet surface ships meant that attacking aircraft needed to be able to strike without getting dangerously close to their increasingly effective air defences.

I was torn between the Royal Navy and the later RAF colour schemes. I have a lot of Fleet Air Arm in my porfolio, so for now the RAF took the starring role. So this painting depicts a Royal Air Force Buccaneer S.2B of No. 12 Squadron, down at the sort of altitude where the Buccaneer looked most at home. Rather than showing it against an empty sky, I wanted the landscape rushing beneath the aircraft to be an important part of the image, helping to convey both speed and the extraordinarily low operating environment of the Buccaneer.

Armed for the anti-shipping role

For this painting I've shown the Buccaneer carrying four BAe Sea Eagle anti-shipping missiles.

Sea Eagle gave the Buccaneer a formidable stand-off anti-shipping capability. Rather than having to approach a warship closely to attack it, the missile could be launched from distance and use its own guidance to make the final attack. The Sea Eagle is a long-range, turbojet-powered anti-shipping missile, and the weapon became a significant upgrade to the Buccaneer's maritime capability.

It's also a particularly purposeful configuration visually. Four large missiles beneath the relatively compact Buccaneer make the aircraft look heavily armed, and I wanted them to be immediately apparent in the painting rather than hidden in shadow.

Painting the Buccaneer where it belongs

For me, aircraft paintings work best when they show something of what the aeroplane was designed to do, rather than simply being a portrait of an aircraft in flight.

With the Buccaneer, that meant going low.

I kept the horizon high in the composition so that most of the background is the landscape beneath the aircraft. The Buccaneer is travelling across the painting at speed, with the terrain deliberately painted more loosely than the aircraft itself. The intention was to create the impression that you're travelling alongside it for a brief moment rather than looking at a static aircraft suspended against a background.

The muted greens and greys of the camouflage also gave me the opportunity to contrast the aircraft against the blues, purples and warmer colours of the landscape below. Although the Buccaneer dominates the composition, I didn't want to make the background simply decorative; it needed to contribute to the feeling of low-level flight.

And low level really was the Buccaneer's natural environment. It had been designed specifically for high-speed, low-level attack, a capability that remained central to its identity throughout both its Royal Navy and RAF careers.

So here she is at full tilt over the ground. Exactly where a Buccaneer ought to be.