- Blackburn Aircraft Ltd
- Brough, Yorkshire
- Robert Blackburn, an aviation pioneer, built his first aircraft in 1909 and founded the Blackburn Aeroplane Co in 1911. He expanded the business as The Blackburn Aeroplane & Motor Co Ltd in 1914 with a factory at Roundhay Road, Leeds, where he gave regular demonstration flights and introduced the first scheduled flights into the UK between Leeds and Bradford. In 1916 Blackburn established a new factory at Brough, East Riding of Yorkshire. In 1919 he created an airline subsidiary, North Sea Aerial Navigation Co Ltd, offering a regular passenger service between Leeds and Hounslow and cargo flights between certain cities, including Leeds and Amsterdam. The Leeds factory closed in 1928 and the following year The Aircraft Investment Corporation Ltd acquired a major stake in the company. In 1934 The Blackburn Aeroplane & Motor Co absorbed the engine manufacturer Cirrus Hermes Engineering Ltd. In 1936 Blackburn Aircraft Ltd was formed to acquire the entire assets of The Blackburn Aeroplane & Motor Co Ltd which then went into voluntary liquidation. A major shareholding in the new company was held by William Denny & Bros Ltd, shipbuilders of Dumbarton. Factories were opened at Dumbarton, West Dunbartonshire, for the production of the Blackburn Botha and Shorts Sunderland flying boats, and at Sherburn-in-Elmet, North Yorkshire, in 1937 and 1940 respectively. Blackburn Aircraft Ltd merged with General Aircraft Ltd in 1949 and was renamed Blackburn & General Aircraft Ltd. Despite some success with the Blackburn Beverley by 1958 the company name reverted back to Blackburn Aircraft Ltd. The company's aircraft production was absorbed into Hawker Siddeley Aviation Ltd and its engine operation into Bristol Siddeley Engines Ltd in 1960, as part of a wider rationalisation of British aircraft manufacturers. The Blackburn name disappeared in 1963.
- First Monoplane (1910); Second Monoplane (1910); Mercury 1 (1911); Type D Single Seat Monoplane (1912); Type E All Steel Monoplane (1912); Type I - Land & Sea Monoplane (1913); Type L - Seaplane (1914); Twin Seaplane Trainer (1915); General Purpose (1916); Tri-plane Flying Scout (1916); White Falcon Monoplane (1916); Blackburd (1918); N1B (1918); RT1 Kangaroo (1918); T1 Swift (1920); T2 Dart (1921); R1 Blackburn (1922); Pellet (1923); Bluebird 1 (1924); T4 Cubaroo (1924); R2 Airedale (1925); T3 Velos (1925); RB1 Iris (1926); Sprat (1926); T5 Ripon (1926); Beagle (1928); F1 Turcock (1928); F2 Lincock (1928); F1 Nautilus (1929); T7B (1929); RB2 Sydney (1930); B1 Segrave (1931); B2 (1932); BM1/30 (1932); B5 Baffin 1932); CA15C (1932); T8 Baffin (1932); RB3 Perth (1933); T9 Shark (1933); B7 (1934); .6 Shark II (1935); B24 Skua (1937); B25 Roc (1938); B26 Botha (1938); B20 (1940); B37 Firebrand F (1942); B48 (1947); Firecrest (1949); B54/ B88 (YB1) (1949); B54 (YA5) (1949); B101 Beverley (1950); B103 Buccaneer (1958).
- Blackburn Aircraft Ltd, The Blackburn Story (1960); British Aerospace, From Blackburn to British Aerospace 1909-1985 (1985); A J Jackson Blackburn Aircraft Since 1909, 2nd ed. (1989); A M Sherry, The Blackburn: Dumbarton's Aircraft Factory (1996).
Various records 1910-60.
Aircraft plans, drawings and sketches including material relating to the Dart, Cubaroo, Iris and Blackburn 1920-28 [Saynor Collection]; brochures and marketing materials, 1911-58.
Institution of Mechanical Engineers
Stress office report, ‘Introduction to the matrix method of stress analysis with special reference to the B103 Fin', 1959 [PER/90/2/1].
Articles of association 1989 [L001-2416: Grey]; directors' meeting minute books 1922-31, 1936-46, 1959-70 [L001-2416: 6504]; general meeting minutes 1936-41 [L001-2416: 6504]; statutory returns 1963-79 [L001-2416: Grey]; registers of directors/managers 1936-65 [L001-2416: 6505, Grey]; register of seals 1936-44, 1986 [L001-2416: 6504, Grey]; register of mortgages 1952-55 [L001-2416: 6504]; signed accounts 1972-84, 1986-90 [L001-2416: Grey]; Blackburn & General Aircraft Ltd: registers of ordinary shares n.d. [L001-2416: 6505, 6508-11]; Blackburn Aircraft Products Ltd: directors' meeting minutes 1918-36 [L001-2416: 6504]; Blackburn Consolidated Ltd: directors' meeting minutes 1929-31 [L001-2416: 6504]; Blackburn Group Ltd: acquisition offer correspondence n.d.; correspondence re acquisition offer by Hawker Siddeley Group Ltd 1959-60; project brochures submitted to Air Ministry and successors 1950s [L001-2416: 6504-5, AC94/27/211, 212].
Works photograph album 1916 [MS/0519].
Papers re development of Buccaneer 1950s; technical drawings n.d.; technical manuals n.d.