Blackburn T.B.
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The Blackburn TB (for "Twin Blackburn") was a long-range twin-engined anti-
Zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp. 155â ...
seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tech ...
. It was
Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the River Ribble, Ribble Valley, east of Preston ...
's first multi-engine aircraft to fly.


Design and development

The first attacks by
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
bombing airships on the United Kingdom in the winter of 1914–15 resulted in the
British Admiralty The Admiralty was a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, department of the Government of the United Kingdom that was responsible for the command of the Royal Navy. Historically, its titular head was the Lord High Admiral of the ...
issuing a requirement for a two-seat aircraft with long endurance to attack
Zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp. 155â ...
s by dropping incendiary Ranken darts onto the airships in the hope of igniting their gas envelopes, with an order for nine Blackburn TBs being placed in March
1915 Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January *January – British physicist Sir Joseph Larmor publishes his observations on "The Influence of Local Atmospheric Cooling on Astronomical Refraction". *January 1 * ...
.Mason 1994, p. 42. The TB was a seaplane with twin fuselages, situated 10 ft (3.35 m) apart, with the pilot in one fuselage and the observer in the other, having no means of communication other than hand signals.Mason 1994, p. 43. 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
aileron An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement aroun ...
s on the upper wings only.Jackson 1968, p. 94. Although it was intended that the TB would be powered by two 150 hp (112 kW)
Smith Static Smith may refer to: People and fictional characters * Metalsmith, or simply smith, a craftsman fashioning tools or works of art out of various metals * Smith (given name) * Smith (surname), a family name originating in England ** List of people ...
radial engines The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. It resembles a stylized star when viewed from the front, and is cal ...
, which promised low weight and good fuel consumption, these proved to be unsatisfactory, and 100 hp (75 kW)
Gnome Monosoupape 9 Type B-2 The ''Monosoupape'' ( French for single-valve), was a rotary engine design first introduced in 1913 by Gnome Engine Company (renamed Gnome et Rhône in 1915). It used a clever arrangement of internal transfer ports and a single pushrod-operated ...
had to be substituted, this allowing the first aircraft to fly in August 1915.Mason 1994, pp. 42–43. Testing showed that the two Gnome engines gave insufficient power, with the aircraft being unable to climb above 8,000 ft (2,438 m) carrying the required three canisters of 24 1 lb (.5 kg) Ranken darts. The weapon load was therefore reduced to two canisters. The ninth (and final) TB was fitted with 110 hp (80 kW)
Clerget Clerget-Blin (full name being ''Société Clerget-Blin et Cie'') was a French precision engineering company formed in 1913 by the engineer and inventor Pierre Clerget and industrialist Eugène Blin. In 1939, the company was absorbed into the ' ...
engines with the hope of improving performance. This modification was found to have little effect.


Operational history

Seven TBs were delivered to the Royal Naval Air Service. They did not see much action, four serving for a short time at
RNAS Killingholme The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps t ...
in 1917. All seven, together with the remaining two that were held in store, were broken up in 1917.Jackson 1968, pp 96–97.


Operators

; *
Royal Naval Air Service The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty (United Kingdom), Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British ...


Specifications (TB)


References


Sources

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External links


Blackburn T.B.
at the British Aircraft Directory {{Blackburn aircraft Twin Blackburn 1910s British fighter aircraft Floatplanes Twin-fuselage aircraft Rotary-engined aircraft Biplanes Aircraft first flown in 1915 Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft Twin-tail aircraft