Blackburn

1912 Monoplane

The Blackburn 1912 Monoplane in March 1913 at Lofthouse Park, Leeds with Cyril Foggin (right) and Harold Blackburn (left).

Blackburn achieved much greater success with his second monoplane, which was flown at Filey on 8 March 1911. The machine was designed and built for Cyril Foggin, who later became an accomplished aviator in the Royal Flying Corps.

This 1912 Monoplane, was powered by a 50 hp Gnome rotary engine and had a triangular cross section fuselage constructed of wood and cloth covered. Early designs of this era utilised wing-warping rather than any form of aileron control surfaces. 

The aircraft was used for a number of customer demonstration flights from Lofthouse Park (between Leeds and Wakefield). Blackburn himself, used the aircraft to promote his fledgling business by dropping sales leaflets over the wealthy areas of Harrowgate to the north, and Stamford to the south. The diminutive machine also made a number of cross-country flights in April 1913 and on 23rd, 24th and 25th July 1913, Blackburn made daily newspaper delivery flights between Leeds and York, gaining huge publicity.

This second Blackburn design was followed by a successful series of Mercury-powered monoplanes (the Mercury I, II and II, of which a grand total of nine were built) and these were all flown at Filey and later at Hendon.

Eventually, Foggins sold the monoplane to Mr Montague Glew, a recent graduate of the Blackburn Flying Schoool. Glew gave flying demonstrations around the UK although he suffered a number of accidents and minor crashes, predominently due to his poor piloting skills. It was during a local flight that Glew crashed the aircraft at Wittering, Lincolnshire in 1914. At the time it was considered unrepairable and worthy of being scrapped.

The Blackburn 1912 Monoplane outside the flying school hangar at Brough in January 1953.

Thankfully, the remains of the aircraft were collected and stored on a family farm and they laid there under a tarpaulin until they were discovered and acquired by Richard Shuttleworth in 1938.

A number of components were totally unusable, such the main wing spars and engine cowling which all needed to be replaced. The restored airframe eventually flew at Henlow on 17th September 1949, in the hands of a very brave AH Wheeler.

This rare survivor is the oldest British-built aeroplane remaining in flying condition today and it can be seen flying in suitably calm conditions, when displayed at the various air shows staged by the Shuttleworth Collection at Old Warden, Bedfordshire.