The Blackburn First Monoplane (also known as Monoplane No 1) was a British experimental aircraft constructed by Robert Blackburn in 1909.

Design and development

The First Monoplane was a high-wing

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...

with the engine and pilot's seat located on a three-wheeled platform. A

cruciform tail __NOTOC__ The cruciform tail is an aircraft empennage configuration which, when viewed from the aircraft's front or rear, looks much like a cross. The usual arrangement is to have the horizontal stabilizer intersect the vertical tail somewhere ...

was carried on an uncovered boom extending from the wing. The 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m) propeller was mounted just below the wing's leading edge and driven by a chain to the 35 hp (26 kW)

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combi ...

engine below. Designed during a stay in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, construction began at Thomas Green & Sons engineering works at

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

, where Blackburn's father was general manager and was later relocated to workshop space in a small clothing factory. When complete, it was transported to the beach between Saltburn and Marske for testing from April 1909. In that year, only taxying trials with the occasional hop were made. The only flight – on 24 May 1910 – lasted for around one minute, and ended in a crash in which the aircraft was damaged beyond repair. Blackburn later recalled the incident thus:

Survivors

The only aircraft was destroyed but a replica of the aircraft was constructed by members of the Brough Heritage Group and is displayed at the Brough Heritage Centre.

Specifications

References

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Blackburn Aircraft Company
(archived page; details the construction of the replica) {{Blackburn aircraft 1900s British experimental aircraft First Monoplane Single-engined tractor aircraft High-wing aircraft 1909 in aviation Aircraft first flown in 1909