The Blackburn B-3 was a prototype
British torpedo bomber designed and built by
Blackburn Aircraft
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 Ribble Valley, east of Preston and north- ...
as a potential replacement for the
Ripon. It was unsuccessful, with only the two prototypes being built.
Design and development
In 1930, the British
Air Ministry issued
Specification M.1/30 for a
carrier-based
Carrier-based aircraft, sometimes known as carrier-capable aircraft or carrier-borne aircraft, are naval aircraft designed for operations from aircraft carriers. They must be able to launch in a short distance and be sturdy enough to withstand ...
torpedo bomber to replace the
Ripon, to be powered by the
Rolls-Royce Buzzard or
Armstrong Siddeley Leopard engines. Prototypes were ordered from Blackburn,
Handley Page
Handley Page Limited was a British aerospace manufacturer. Founded by Frederick Handley Page (later Sir Frederick) in 1909, it was the United Kingdom's first publicly traded aircraft manufacturing company. It went into voluntary liquidation a ...
and
Vickers. The Blackburn design was a single-bay
biplane
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...
, with a fabric-covered steel tube
fuselage, powered by a Buzzard engine. The prototype was flown first on 8 March 1932
and crashed in June 1933 following an engine failure. Because it had been ordered by the Air Ministry, this machine carried an RAF serial (''S1640'') and was known throughout its life as the M.1/30, after the Specification.
Following relaxation of some of the specifications requirements, Blackburn constructed a second aircraft as a private venture, with a watertight metal
monocoque fuselage replacing the previous steel tube fuselage,
this first flying on 24 February 1933.
Because it was a private venture it received and carried the Blackburn
Class B civil test marking B-3 and was referred to as such, though it was also known as the M.1/30A.
It performed poorly during testing, still being incapable of meeting the performance requirements of the specification even though they had been relaxed, and being too heavy for the carrier deck lifts. As none of the competitors for the specification could meet its requirements, the specification was cancelled, with no aircraft being ordered.
Specifications (M.1/30A)
See also
References
External links
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{{Blackburn aircraft
1930s British bomber aircraft
M.1 30
Single-engined tractor aircraft
Biplanes
Aircraft first flown in 1932