Blackburne was a trade name of Burney and Blackburne Limited a British manufacturer of motorcycles from 1913 to 1922 at Tongham near Farnham, Surrey. They were also a major supplier of engines to other motor cycle and light car makers and continued to make these until 1937.
The company was founded by Cecil and Alec Burney who bought the rights to an engine designed by Geoffrey De Havilland. In 1923 the Burney brothers set up the Burney motorcycle company that lasted until 1925.
Around 1922, Blackburne first ran the Tomtit two-cylinder light aircraft engine based on the Lympne 696 cc V-twin.
In 1924 the company produced the Blackburne Thrush a three-cylinder light aircraft engine. The first engine design was of 1098 cc, consistent with the capacity limit imposed for the 1924 light aeroplane trials at Lympne. The engine was enlarged and improved during 1925 to 1494 cc for further air trials held during 1926. In late 1925 the engine passed the severe Air Ministry 100 hours operational test.[1] There are two known surviving engines, one of 1100 cc and the other the 1500 cc unit at the Shuttleworth Collection museum at Old Warden, although there may be others.
Sporting achievements[]
Between 1923 and 1930, riders Norris, Harold Beart and Jackson achieved considerable success with Blackburne KMA, KMB racing engine and KMC sports engine powered machines.
Note: Not all this templates links have a relevance to Tractor Wiki but it is linked from some articles on Tractor Wiki as some featured companies had Aviation connections.
