Blackburn Blackburn

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Blackburn Blackburn
Blackburn Blackburn II in Flight.jpg
Type: Biplane, reconnaissance aircraft
Design country:

United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom

Manufacturer:

Blackburn Aircraft

First flight:

1922

Commissioning:

1923

Number of pieces:

65

The Blackburn Blackburn was a single-engine, three-seat reconnaissance aircraft of the Royal Air Force for British aircraft carriers . The machine used by the carrier units from 1923 was in service until early 1931. It was developed alongside the Avro Bison .
Both replaced the Westland Walrus and were replaced from 1929 by the Fairey IIIF .

Evolution of Blackburn Blackburn

The Blackburn Aircraft company developed the Blackburn after tendering 3/21 for a carrier-based reconnaissance and artillery observation aircraft . A new fuselage was constructed for the wings and tail unit of the Blackburn Dart . The pilot sat above the Napier Lion IIB engine in an open cockpit in front of the wings. The navigator had its place in the fuselage and at the end of the cabin there was a machine gun stand above. The structure taken over from the dart could be folded down. The wing center piece of the upper wing replaced the fuselage to which the upper wing was attached. The armament consisted of a rigid Vickers machine gun , which was attached to the outside left of the pilot and a movable Lewis machine gun on a Scarff ring for the gunner. Three prototypes were completed in 1922 and a first production order for 12 machines was placed. The series machines were given the designation Blackburn I and were delivered to the RAF in Gosport from April 1923 . 18 more Blackburn I were built by 1924. These machines were available for the first use of the machine in an active unit, the Fleet Spotter Flight 422 , which was used on the HMS Eagle in the Mediterranean.

Another order was placed for 29 Blackburns to receive the somewhat more powerful Napier Lion V engine. In addition, the upper wing was mounted 57 cm higher and braced against the fuselage, which resulted in an improvement in flight characteristics. The thus completed machines were Blackburn Blackburn Mk.II referred. All existing machines of the type Mk.I were converted accordingly.
At least two Blackburn Mk.I's were converted into training machines with pilots seated next to each other.

Blackburn Blackburn coach

The following variants were delivered to the RAF:

Blackburn prototype
built three machines built.
Blackburn Mk.I
Series version with 450 HP (335 kW) Napier Lion IIB engine, 33 machines manufactured
Blackburn Mk.II
improved version with 465 PS (346 kW) Napier Lion V and raised upper wing; 29 machines manufactured, plus modifications.
Blackburn trainer,
Conversion of two Blackburn Mk.I. to school machines with a cockpit, in which students and teachers sat next to each other in the cockpit and both could operate the machine alone; the guy was unofficially called Bull .

Used by the British Fleet Air Force

The Westland Walrus

On April 1, 1923, the Royal Air Force reorganized its units intended for naval combat. For the first time, special flights (swarm) were set up for the use of aircraft carriers. This also resulted in three “Fleet Spotter” flights, which initially had Westland Walrus aircraft as operational aircraft.

Flight 422 was the first RAF combat unit to be equipped with the Blackburn Blackburn Mk.I in June 123 . The new machines replaced the Westland Walrus in the reconnaissance unit . The flight was intended for the HMS  Eagle and went to the Mediterranean fleet in early June 1924 with the aircraft carrier completed at the end of the year .

HMS Eagle

The Eagle aircraft group was the largest of an aircraft carrier at the time and consisted of four flights of six machines each. In addition to 422 were the flights 402 with Fairey Flycatcher - fighter planes , 440 with III Supermarine Seagull scouts and 460 with Blackburn Dart - torpedo planes on board. However, mostly one of the four flights to one of the land bases Halfar on Malta or Aboukir near Alexandria was detached. In January 1927, Flight 422 temporarily converted to Fairey IIID , with which it was on duty from HMS Argus . In May 1928, the flight was preparing to again and received Blackburn Blackburn Mk.II . He was reassigned to the Eagle . In April 1929 the unit was renumbered to Flight 450 . In September 1929, the HMS Courageous then became the new base of the Flight 450 , but in November 1930 it gave up its Blackburn Blackburn and replaced it with Fairey IIIF .

The second unit with the Blackburn Blackburn Mk.I was the Flight 420 of the HMS Furious in January 1925 , which had previously used Westland Walrus . A year later, the unit exchanged the original equipment for machines of the Mk.II version . In April 1929 the unit was renumbered to Flight 449 . In June 1930 the flight was assigned to the Courageous and in June 1931 he gave up his Blackburn Blackburn and replaced it with Fairey IIIF .

This ended the service life of the machines with the peculiar hull shape and the “double name” after 8 years. It was almost two years longer with a combat unit than the competitor Avro Bison, which was also procured . Only one of the prototypes of the Blackburn Blackburn was tested
as a floatplane .

Technical specifications

Parameter T.2 Dart Mk.II R-1 Blackburn Mk.I Avro bison
crew 1 3
length 10.78 m 11.02 m 10.97 m
span 13.86 m 13.84 m 14.07 m
height 3.91 m 3.81 m 4.11 m
Wing area 60.8 m² 60.4 m² 57.62 m²
Empty mass 1900 kg 1786 kg 1887 kg
Takeoff mass 3000 kg 2710 kg
max. 3022 kg
2631 kg
Top speed 170 km / h 157 km / h 177 km / h
Range 660 km 4:15 h 550 km
Service ceiling 4000 m 3950 m 4270 m
drive Napier Lion IIB ; 450 hp
Armament - two MG a MG
Bomb load one torpedo or
four bombs (946 kg)
-

See also

literature

  • David Brown: HMS Eagle , Warship Profile 35, 1973
  • AJ Jackson: Blackburn Aircraft since 1909 , Putnam London, 1978, ISBN 0-370-00053-6
  • CA Jenkins: HMS Furious , Warship Profile 23/24, 1972
  • Peter Lewis: The British Bomber since 1914 , Putnam London, 3rd edition 1980, ISBN 0-370-30265-6
  • Kenneth Munson: Bomber 1919–1939 , Orell Füssli; Zurich, 1971
  • Ray Sturtivant: The Squadrons of the Fleet Air Arm , Air-Britain Tonbridge, 1984, ISBN 0-85130-120-7
  • Owen Thetford: Aircraft of the Royal Navy since 1912 , Putnam London, 4th edition 1978, ISBN 0-370-30021-1

Web links

Commons : Blackburn Aircraft  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Jackson: Blackburn Aircraft , pp. 160f.
  2. Jackson, p. 162.
  3. a b Jackson, p. 164.
  4. ^ Thetford: Aircraft of the Royal Navy , p. 48
  5. ^ Thetford, p. 48.
  6. ^ Thetford, p. 49.
  7. Thetford, p. 50.
  8. a b c d Sturtivant: The Squadrons of the Fleet Air Arm , p. 467
  9. ^ Brown: HMS Eagle , p. 254
  10. Sturtivant, p. 469
  11. Sturtivant, pp. 468f.