Designed and built as a torpedo bomber and reconnaissance aircraft, as Pete London discovers, Blackburn’s first series-production aircraft found its main niche on the civil scene.
Development of the Blackburn Kangaroo
The Kangaroo landplane was developed onthe basis of previous floatplane designs
Robert Blackburn was born at Kirkstall near Leeds in 1885, and as a young man became an engineer. Captivated by the trailblazing Edwardian aviators, later he wrote, “I realised that the aviation ‘bug’ was well and truly in my blood”. Blackburn grew determined to build aeroplanes of his own, and by March 1911 the Light Type monoplane had flown from his premises at Filey Sands.
