Blackburn: B-3
Note: This is a sub-section of Blackburn Aircraft.
The Blackburn B-3 was a prototype British torpedo bomber designed and built by Blackburn Aeroplane and Motor Co as a potential replacement for the Ripon. It was unsuccessful, with only two prototypes being built.
In 1930, the British Air Ministry issued Specification M.1/30 for a carrier-based torpedo bomber to replace the Ripon, to be powered by the Rolls-Royce Buzzard or Armstrong Siddeley Leopard engines. Prototypes were ordered from Blackburn, Handley Page and Vickers. The Blackburn design was a single-bay biplane, with a fabric-covered steel tube fuselage, powered by a Buzzard engine.
The prototype was first flown on 8 March 1932 and crashed in June 1933 following an engine failure. Because it had been ordered by the Air Ministry, this machine carried an RAF serial (S1640) and was known throughout its life as the M.1/30, after the Specification.
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