Blackbum Aircraft since 1909

This is the absorbing story of a great Yorkshire enterprise, beginning in 1908 when young Robert Blackburn, inspired by the exploits of famous French aviators, designed his first aeroplane in Paris.

Tried out on the Yorkshire coast in 1909, it was ancestor to a long line of Blackburn aircraft designed and built on Humberside during more than half a century.

Between the wars the Dart-Ripon-Baffin- Shark family of classic folding-wing, deck- landing torpedo biplanes and the majestic Iris and Perth flying-boats firmly established the company as specialists in the construction of aircraft for naval use.

They also built many unusual military and civil prototypes; the beautiful Lincock single-seater; the Bluebird and B-2 trainers; the Skua, Roc and Botha of the Second World War; and in recent years the Firebrand, the Beverley freighter and that long-lived masterpiece the Buccaneer low- level strike bomber. 

These are among more than 50 military and civil types described in exhaustive detail with specifications, full individual aircraft. production lists and complete history of each.

Free access to the company's archives enabled the author to illustrate the book with a large number of rare and historically important photographs, previously unpublished, and to present a mass of new and authentic data on all Blackburn types and all unbuilt projects.

To recreate the unique land-sea atmosphere of Brough works, well illustrated introductory chapters present a history of the Blackburn company, its managership of the Greek National Aircraft Factory and the activities of the North Sea Aerial and General Transport Co. Ltd in the fields of air transport and flying training.

Blackburn modifications to American naval types 1940-1945 are fully covered and the book concludes with a section on construction for other manufacturers, the first complete list of Blackburn designations ever to be published, listings of the whole Brough output since 1920 and fleet lists of all transport and trainer aircraft flown by operating subsidiaries.

First published in 1968 Blackburn Aircraft since 1909 has been revised to bring fully up to date the continuing story of the Beverley and Buccaneer.