Blackburn T.B.

For a description of the format and data included in Production Tables, see here.

Contents

Type Description

• T.B.
• (T.B. stood for "Twin Blackburn"). Two-seat, two-bay biplane seaplane built against a 1915 Admiralty Specification, calling for a 'long-range night interceptor to counter the Zeppelin threat'. The aircraft had twin fuselages, situated 10 ft apart, with the Pilot sitting inside the starboard fuselage and the observer in the port fuselage, having no means of communication other than hand signals. Each of the twin fuselages was a wooden structure with fabric covering, with a tractor engine in front of each fuselage. It had fabric-covered, wooden unstaggered, unswept and unequal-span wings. The upper wing extension was wire braced to steel pylons above the wing. The Blackburn had ailerons on the upper wings only. Intended armament was 3 × canisters, each containing 24 × 1 lb Ranken incendiary darts. To be powered by two 150 h.p. Smith Static radial engines, one in each fuselage, these proved to be unsatisfactory and were replaced by two 100 h.p. Gnome Monosoupape 9 Type B-2, or 110 h.p. Clerget 9b (last aircraft only) powerplants.

Production Details

Production References

1. Blackburn Aircraft Since 1909, A.J. Jackson (Putnam, 1968 and 1989)
2. Royal Navy Aircraft Serials and Units, 1911-1919, Ray Sturtivant and Gordon Page (Air-Britain Publications, 1992)