11 facts about the Buccaneer fighter jets now at Cotswold Airport

1. The Buccaneer - full name the Blackburn Buccaneer - was a British low-level subsonic strike aircraft which served with the Royal Navy and later the Royal Air Force. The Buccaneer was retired from service in 1994.

2. It was manufactured by Blackburn Aircraft Ltd, a British aircraft manufacturer based in Yorkshire which specialised in naval and maritime aircraft during the first part of the 20th Century.

3. The Buccaneer is a mid-wing, twin-engine aircraft with a crew of two in a tandem-seat arrangement.

4.The Royal Navy originally procured the Buccaneer as a naval strike aircraft capable of operating from aircraft carriers in 1962 to counterbalance advances made in the Soviet navy.

5. The Buccaneer was capable of delivering nuclear weapons as well as conventional munitions for anti-shipping warfare.

6. The initial production aircraft suffered a series of accidents due to insufficient engine power which led to the use of more powerful Rolls-Royce Spey jet engines.

7. 211 planes were built.

8. The RAF began using Buccaneers in 1969.

9. Buccaneers were also used by the South African Air Force - 16 aircraft were ordered in 1962. Extra rocket engines were added to provide the additional thrust needed to take off from airfields at high altitudes in hot climates.

10. Buccaneers saw combat action in the first Gulf War of 1991 and the South African Border War - also known as the Namibian War of Independence, which ran from 1966 to 1990.

11. Some Buccaneers have manually folded wings, a space-saving feature typically employed by carrier aircraft.