After reading their last book on the Sea Hornet, I knew I was in for a real treat. This particular edition is #6 in the series and on the Buccaneer S.1. As many of you know, the original Buccaneer was powered by the Dehavilland Gyron Jr turbojet and while it was generally a good engine, it had the nasty habit of going into compressor stall in certain flight regimes. In other words, if you flew it 'wrong', the engines would quit. This, of course, was not good. The S.2 version fixed that by going to another engine, but that is another story.

The Buccaneer had several firsts going for it. One of them was that it relied on air being blown over the flight and control surfaces to help improve lift, especially on take-off and landings. The system used compressor bleed air so there was plenty of this air available and it was generally a reliable and successful system that was used on a number of other aircraft.

The Buccaneer was an incredibly strong aircraft as well. Designed for low level anti-shipping attacks, it had to be able to handle the buffeting that is so common at low altitude. In order to make it light as well, the aircraft had a lot of components made of magnesium. However, magnesium does not light salt air and quickly corrodes. There were instances of a mechanic being able to push his finger through the one-piece upper wing section into a fuel cell. This required a rather quick meeting of minds to come up with a fix and one was found that enabled the aircraft to continue its missions.

However, the real fun part of the book are all the stories by aircrew, most of them telling of how they managed to get into trouble with the plane and the results of those adventures. It includes stories from instructor pilots, those who flew from the various carriers and those who participated in other aspects of operating and maintaining what was the last British designed full deck carrier jet aircraft. All told in that particular British style where everything is very much laid back and told with little excitement. In other words, a real joy to read.

The book is more than 'I was there' stories. In its 104 pages are over 100 superb photographs, and 16 outstanding pieces of artwork (profiles and four views). For a Buccaneer fan, those are enough to justify the cover price. I found the entire volume to be a superlative read and the layout provides large, quality images. It is a book that I can most highly recommend to you.

May 2007

My thanks to AdHoc for the review book. You can find these at your local hobby shop and if not, ask them to order them for you. You can also order direct by e-mailing them at www.adhocpublications.com

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