AA34114 Hawker Siddeley Buccaneer S.2B, RAF No.16 Sqn

During the impressive 32 year service history of Britain™s Blackburn Buccaneer force, surely there can have been no finer looking aircraft than S.2B XT279 in her stunning black livery, even though the decision to present her in this manner was not without some controversy. The story behind this stunning scheme is that during the early 1980s, one of RAF No.16 Squadron™s Buccaneers was finished in a smart all black finish, with a yellow Saint™ stick man on either side of the tail and yellow codes, making her undoubtedly the most distinctive jet in Germany at that time. The only problem with this is that the scheme was applied whilst the Squadron Commander was away from duty and the scheme fell squarely into the unofficial™ category. The aircraft would later take part in a formation flypast over RAF Germany HQ, but by the time she landed back at RAF Laarbruch, the Top Brass™ had spotted the scheme and all hell had broken loose! The Buccaneer was immediately tucked away in a hangar with crews ordered to immediately remove the scheme - in addition to this, all photographic evidence of the unofficial scheme was ordered to be destroyed. Thankfully, a small number of images did survive the cull and ever since, modellers and enthusiasts have been fascinated by the story of RAF Germany™s stunning black Buccaneer.