The Shuttleworth Collection, Old Warden
Flies the 1912 Blackburn Type D, the oldest surviving British-built aircraft, still airworthy.
The types
Blackburn aircraft you can see
| Type | First flew | Built | UK museums |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blackburn Mercuryreplica | 1911 | ~9 | 1 |
| Blackburn Type D | 1912 | 1 | 1 |
| Blackburn B-2 | 1932 | 42 | 2 |
| Blackburn SkuaII | 1937 | 192 | 1 |
| Blackburn Beverley | 1950 | 49 | 3 |
| Blackburn BuccaneerS.1/S.2 | 1958 | 211 | 16 |
The firm
Blackburn in brief
In 1916 the firm opened a factory at Brough, East Yorkshire, which became its home. It concentrated on naval and maritime aircraft: the Skua, Roc, Botha and Firebrand. A second factory at Dumbarton began building the Botha in 1939. Blackburn merged with General Aircraft in 1949. After the war came the Beverley transport, with 47 built for the RAF, and the Buccaneer naval strike jet.
Hawker Siddeley absorbed the aircraft business around 1960, and the engines went to Bristol Siddeley. The Blackburn name was dropped in 1963. Brough later built Hawks for British Aerospace.
Where to go
Museums holding Blackburn aircraft
| Museum | Blackburn types | Adult entry | Airframes | Headline exhibit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Yorkshire Aircraft MuseumDoncaster, South Yorkshire | 3 | £7.50 | 109 | Doncaster's South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum sprawls across the old RAF Doncaster site: dozens of airframes and helicopters, strong… |
| Fleet Air Arm MuseumYeovil, Somerset | 2 | £21 | 97 | Concorde 002 (G-BSST), the first British-assembled Concorde, which made her maiden flight from Filton in 1969 and now headlines a hall of… |
| Newark Air MuseumNewark, Nottinghamshire | 2 | £12.50 | 95 | Vulcan XM594, with cockpit tours occasionally given by former Vulcan aircrew, which reviewers describe with the reverence normally… |
| The Shuttleworth CollectionBiggleswade, Bedfordshire | 2 | £19.50 | 55 | The 1934 DH.88 Comet 'Grosvenor House', winner of the MacRobertson England–Australia air race, restored to fly; and the Edwardians —… |
| Yorkshire Air MuseumYork, North Yorkshire | 2 | £17 | 54 | Halifax 'Friday the 13th' — the world's only complete Halifax reconstruction, honouring the type that flew from this very field —… |
| City of Norwich Aviation MuseumNorwich, Norfolk | 1 | £9 | 33 | City of Norwich Aviation Museum at Horsham St Faith: Norfolk's largest, ~30 airframes including a Vulcan and Nimrod with bookable… |
| East Midlands AeroparkDerby, Leicestershire | 1 | £5 | 35 | East Midlands Aeropark: a Vulcan, Nimrod R1 and Buccaneer parked on grassy mounds overlooking EMA's runway — half museum, half premier… |
| Gatwick Aviation MuseumGatwick, Surrey | 1 | £12.50 | 16 | Avro Shackleton WR982 (the £5 guided tour is unanimously endorsed) and a live-engined English Electric Lightning. There's also… |
| IWM DuxfordCambridge, Cambridgeshire | 1 | £29 | 146 | Concorde 101 (G-AXDN), the pre-production development aircraft and the fastest Concorde of them all at Mach 2.23 — plus an SR-71A… |
| National Museum Of FlightNorth Berwick, East Lothian | 1 | £15 | 47 | Concorde G-BOAA, which flew British Airways' first commercial supersonic service in 1976 and arrived here by barge and giant road-crawl… |
| RAF Manston History MuseumRamsgate, Kent | 1 | £7 | 22 | RAF Manston's history museum spans 1916 RNAS days to Cold War Meteors, with strong 1940s room-sets — and it sits next door to the… |
| Royal Air Force Museum LondonLondon, Greater London | 1 | Free | 88 | Avro Lancaster R5868 'S-Sugar' — 137 operations, the RAF's highest-scoring surviving heavy — under the same roof as a Vulcan, a… |
| Royal Air Force Museum MidlandsShifnal, Shropshire | 1 | Free | 78 | TSR-2 XR220, one of two survivors of the most gifted aircraft Britain ever cancelled, sharing floor space with the stainless-steel… |
| Solway Aviation MuseumCrosby on Eden, Cumbria | 1 | £8 | 21 | Vulcan XJ823 with pre-bookable crew-compartment visits; a Phantom, Lightning and Canberra (whose three-crew cockpit reviewers describe as… |
| South Wales Aviation MuseumBarry, Vale of Glamorgan | 1 | £10 | 73 | The resident Harrier and a growing VC10/Tornado-era collection, most with steps and open canopies. Kids exit wearing thousand-yard grins. |
| Stoneykirk Aviation MuseumStranraer, Dumfries and Galloway | 1 | £6 | 9 | Stoneykirk: one enthusiast's cockpit collection on a Galloway croft, Vulcan included, with tea, cakes and a perfect 5.0 rating — the… |
| Thorpe Camp Visitor CentreLincoln, Lincolnshire | 1 | £7 | 5 | Thorpe Camp preserves RAF Woodhall Spa's communal site — home of 617 Squadron post-Dams — as a period village of huts, with volunteers in… |
| Ulster Aviation Society (Maze Long Kesh)Lisburn, County Antrim | 1 | By appointment | 63 | The Shorts family — SC.1 vertical take-off research aircraft included — plus a Buccaneer, Phantom, Wildcat, and a newly arrived AV-8… |
Questions
Frequently asked
Where was Blackburn based?
At Brough, on the Humber in East Yorkshire, from 1916. The firm began in Leeds and also had a factory at Dumbarton.
What is the oldest British aircraft still flying?
The 1912 Blackburn Type D, kept airworthy by the Shuttleworth Collection at Old Warden.
When did the Blackburn name disappear?
In 1963, after Hawker Siddeley had taken over the aircraft business.