72011 BLACKBURN BLACKBURD LATE VERSION

Blackburn Blackburd is a British prototype biplane torpedo plane from the declining period of World War I. The prototype flight took place in May 1918 - the machine never entered mass production. Only three prototypes were built. The drive was provided by a single 350 HP Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII engine. The machine was capable of carrying a single torpedo weighing up to 650 kilograms. Blackburd was developed by Blackburn Aircraft in response to the Royal Navy's January 1918 specification, which sought a successor to the Sopwith Cuckoo aircraft. While the design of the Sopwith company was very successful, it had too little lifting capacity and was not able to carry torpedoes weighing more than 450 kilograms. It is not surprising then that the main criterion for the new torpedo plane was higher payload. Two factories competed for the contract with the Royal Navy: Blackburn with the Blackburd plane and Short with the Shirl machine. In the course of the tests, Blackburn Blackburd turned out to be much worse than its competitor: it was unstable in level flight, and one of the samples delivered for testing crashed. Both these elements prevented the machine from going into the line.