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Aviation History
1939
1939 - 1625.PDF
534 @KW MAY 25, 1939 (Above) Mr. Robert Blackburn with his brothers Charles (standing at his right) and Norman. (Left) Mr. R. R. Rhodes and (right) Sqn. Ldr. J. L. N. Bennett-Baggs, both directors of the Blackburn company. most popularly known through their lawn mowers) decided that Robert's enthusiasm for flying should be given an cutlet, and he helped him to get his first aircraft works started. "Works" is something of a euphemism when applied to the first Blackburn factory, for it consisted of a single room underneath a small clothing factory in Benson Street, off North Street, Leeds. Robert had got most of his drawings prepared during 1908, and work on the build ing of the machine began early in 1909. When the aeroplane was finished it was taken to the shore between Marske and Saltburn, and there Robert enjoyed himself by taxying up and down the sands. It is believed that he occasionally succeeded in making short hops, but the 35 h.p. Green engine was not really powerful enough for proper flight, and it was not very long before he scrapped the whole contraption. However, it had served its purpose by showing that Robert .could design aircraft, and one may suppose that this influenced Black burn Senior to continue his support. The machine was original if it was nothing else. One might describe it as a three-wheeled motor car with a wing and tail attached. The pilot and the 35 h.p. Green engine were placed low over the ground on a sort of plat form, and the wing, tail girder and airscrew were raised above this platform, transmission being by chain. That Robert Blackburn had already ideas of his own in those early days is shown by the fact that on June 10, 1910, Flight recorded that he had patented a stability device which consisted of a pendulum-controlled com pressed-air cylinder—the forerunner of the automatic pilot, in fact, though Robert did not know, any more than did anyone else, that pendulum control was unsuitable on account of its susceptibility to the effects of acceleration and deceleration. Robert Blackburn's three-roomed bunga low on the Filey cliffs. The first attempt had an underslung chassis and chain drive from the 35 h.p. Green engine to the airscrew. B. C. Hucks flying machine No. 2 over the sands at Filey. The hangar was on top of the cliff, and a concrete slipway led down to the beach. Robert never minded lending a hand. Here he is installing his first 50 h.p. Gnome engine.
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