Blackburn Buccaneer - Survivor XK527
S.2D XK527 - Privately owned, North Wales
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Buccaneer S.2D XK527 at Aberdeen, September 2001; Les Taylor
The nose of XK527 was to be found at the Bournemouth Aviation Museum at Bournemouth (Hurn) Airport, on loan from Peter Burton who restored it from the gutted wreck it once was.
This particular Buccaneer was delivered to the Royal Navy in October 1960, making her first flight just a couple of weeks before. She was later converted to a S.2D in 1966, returning to service 2 years later. Throughout her flying service, XK527 was used for several trials.
The airframe made her last flight into RAF Scampton in 1983, later being used as a ground instructional aircraft under the maintenance number 8818M. Less than a year later, she was transported to Brough by road, continuing to be used for training purposes, before being scrapped just several months later, in 1985.
Happily, the cockpit managed to escape being scrapped, having been acquired by Peter Burton who moved the cockpit to New Milton in 1988 where he began to restore XK527. Forward a decade, Peter placed the cockpit on loan to Jet Heritage in Bournemouth. However, XK527 quickly moved onto a new owner, Mick Long, who moved it to the Fleetlands Museum in 2000. Mick intended to continue the restoration by building up the currently empty navigator's position and adding the missing intakes. He did get hold of some bits including intakes but then put the nose up for sale and she moved up to Aberdeen, Scotland with her new owner, Les Taylor. Les mounted XK527 on a specially-designed trailer which held her 'invisibly' via the nose wheel leg mount. Les had planned to use it for fund-raising for special kids, but sadly circumstances meant he had to sell her to a private collector. In 2003, XK527 was moved to an unknown location somewhere in Wales where she is now hidden away and remains there to this day.
This particular Buccaneer was delivered to the Royal Navy in October 1960, making her first flight just a couple of weeks before. She was later converted to a S.2D in 1966, returning to service 2 years later. Throughout her flying service, XK527 was used for several trials.
The airframe made her last flight into RAF Scampton in 1983, later being used as a ground instructional aircraft under the maintenance number 8818M. Less than a year later, she was transported to Brough by road, continuing to be used for training purposes, before being scrapped just several months later, in 1985.
Happily, the cockpit managed to escape being scrapped, having been acquired by Peter Burton who moved the cockpit to New Milton in 1988 where he began to restore XK527. Forward a decade, Peter placed the cockpit on loan to Jet Heritage in Bournemouth. However, XK527 quickly moved onto a new owner, Mick Long, who moved it to the Fleetlands Museum in 2000. Mick intended to continue the restoration by building up the currently empty navigator's position and adding the missing intakes. He did get hold of some bits including intakes but then put the nose up for sale and she moved up to Aberdeen, Scotland with her new owner, Les Taylor. Les mounted XK527 on a specially-designed trailer which held her 'invisibly' via the nose wheel leg mount. Les had planned to use it for fund-raising for special kids, but sadly circumstances meant he had to sell her to a private collector. In 2003, XK527 was moved to an unknown location somewhere in Wales where she is now hidden away and remains there to this day.
Information on this page current as of 28/05/2023, last updated by Jake |
Find other photos of XK527 on the following sites:
Air-Britain - Airliners.net - Airplane-Pictures.net - flickr.com - WorldAirPics.com - JetPhotos.net - PlanePictures.net