Having set up his business in Leeds during 1910, aviation pioneer Robert Blackburn incorporated the Blackburn Aeroplane and Motor Company in 1914. Just two years later, in 1916, he established a new factory at Brough, in the East Ridings of Yorkshire. As the First World War was raging in Europe, Blackburn was engaged in producing seaplanes for the allied forces and the location of the new factory at Brough, on the banks of the Humber, proved convenient for their testing.
Following the end of hostilities, and through-out the 1920s and 30s, Brough concentrated heavily on the production of torpedo bombers, seaplanes and other patrol aircraft, creating many designs for consideration by the Fleet Air Arm. Aircraft such as the Blackburn Dart, Blackburn Ripon, Blackburn Baffin, Blackburn Shark and Blackburn Skua were being produced in their hundreds, as were a series of mighty, three-engine flying boats which culminated in the impressive Blackburn Perth, armed with a 37mm anti-shipping cannon and which was the largest flying boat to serve with the Royal Air Force at the time (and the largest biplane flying boat ever to serve with the RAF).
While military aircraft were the main focus for Blackburn and the Brough facility, civil aircraft were not completely ignored. 1924 saw the introduction of the side-by-side two-seater Blackburn Bluebird aircraft, which subsequently developed into the Blackburn B2 trainer. It was a Bluebird that won the prestigious King’s Cup Air Race in 1931, and another (a Bluebird IV) was used by Mrs Victor Bruce in her famous round the world flight in 1930-1931.
Brough was also a centre of Reserve Flying Training for the Royal Air Force during the inter-war years, with the No.4 Elementary and Reserve Flying Training School forming in 1935, while at the outbreak of the Second World War, No. 4 Elementary Flying Training School (EFTS) was formed, which provided training for a range of pupils throughout the war.
In 1934, Blackburn Aircraft acquired the Cirrus Hermes Engineering Company and moved them into a new building on the Brough site. The new acquisition was subsequently renamed as Blackburn Engines Ltd. Two new Blackburn sister factories were built during 1936. One was sited on the banks of the River Leven at Barge Parkin, Dumbarton, Scotland and it was responsible for the production of the Shorts Sunderland flying boat, Blackburn Shark and the Blackburn Botha. The second new facility was created at nearby Sherburn-in-Elmet which concentrated on the sub-contract build of the Fairey Swordfish.
With the outbreak of the Second World War, the Brough factory intensified its production of the Blackburn Botha light bomber/trainer and also the sub-contract build of the Fairey Barracuda naval torpedo bomber. During the same period, Brough was also involved in a considerable amount of work adapting nearly 4,000 American aircraft, as well as repairing war-damaged planes.
The years after the end of the Second World War saw Blackburn Aircraft amalgamate with General Aircraft Limited (GAL) in 1949, resulting in the arrival of the GAL Freighter prototype at Brough. This mammoth aircraft was to become the Blackburn Beverley, with production numbers at Brough reaching a peak in 1953.
On occasional weekends between 1947 and 1957, the runway and airfield perimeter road became a race track and it can lay claim to be the venue where Sir Stirling Moss recorded his first ever race victory. Brough also received a number of VIP visitors during these busy periods including Earl Mountbatten, who opened the new high-speed wind tunnel during the late 1950s.
With the exception of a single YB2 / HP88 research aircraft, Brough and Blackburn’s first venture into the jet age was with the introduction of the Blackburn Buccaneer, a carrier-borne attack aircraft. Designed by Barry P. Laight during the 1950s, the Blackburn Buccaneer remained in service with the RAF until 1994. It proved to be one of Brough's most successful products, serving with the Royal Navy for 32 years.
With the enforced rationalisation of the aircraft industry in 1963, the Blackburn factory at Brough became part of Hawker Siddeley Aviation Group and it concentrated on what was now named the HS Buccaneer. It also became increasingly engaged in aircraft component manufacture and completed expert testing work for other parts of the HSA organisation. A few years later, Brough was selected as the ‘Sister Design Organisation' for the 170 Rolls-Royce powered McDonnell F4 Phantom aircraft, which entered service with the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy in 1969. During its UK service career, some fifty Phantom squadrons were supported by the Brough engineering teams and there were 296 aircraft that were returned to Brough for upgrade, modifications and repair. The combination of the support for the Buccaneer and Phantom meant that between 1972 and 1978, the Brough factory was responsible for both of the Fleet Air Arm’s most formidable front-line aircraft.
Other projects at Brough continued alongside the military aviation activity, including work on the fuselage of the Hawker Siddeley Trident airliner as well as structural component machining for what were to become the first Airbus aircraft such as the A300 and A310. This also led to the manufacture of airliner parts for the HS / BAe 146 Whisper Jets. Extensive work was also carried out on the Hawker Harrier Jump Jet and the Hawk trainer projects, with the latter subsequently being produced at Brough as a complete aircraft.
In 1977 Hawker Siddeley was amalgamated with British Aircraft Corporation to become British Aerospace, bringing further changes to the Brough site, when it became involved in the production of components for the BAe Harrier, and later assembly and manufacture of the complete aircraft. However, when production of the Harrier concluded in 1997, the airfield at Brough was closed, although re-manufacturing work on the Harrier II Plus configuration aircraft continued at the site until 2003.
Flying was briefly resumed at Brough in 2008 when BAE Systems (created from the merger of British Aerospace with Marconi Electronic Systems in 1999) decided that newly manufactured Hawk aircraft would be flown directly from Brough to Warton at a rate of two per month. This continued until 2011, when the last Brough assembled Hawk was flown out, and the airfield itself closed in 2013. The production of Hawk parts continued at Brough until 2020.
Much of the Brough site has now been downsized and many of the factory building and workshops have been repurposed as the Humberside Enterprise Park. Whilst the aircraft manufacturing side of the factory on the banks of the Humber may have ended, the BAE Systems facility at Brough continues to play a vital role in the company’s military aircraft business.