Blackburn Lincock

Design and development

In 1928 Blackburn designed and built a private venture lightweight biplane fighter powered by an Armstrong Siddeley Lynx IVC engine. The Blackburn F.2 Lincock was of wooden construction and first appeared in May 1928. It performed well in demonstrations but failed to gain any orders. The Canadian government showed an interest in the design, and a metal construction variant (the Lincock II) was built. It was tested in Canada at Camp Borden in 1930 where there was interest in using the Lincock as an advanced trainer, but the type was not ordered. It was later used to perform public aerobatic displays in 1933 and 1934.

The final version was the Lincock III of which five were produced, two were delivered to China, two to Japan and one retained as a demonstrator. Interest from Italy resulted in Piaggio acquiring a licence to produce a two-seat version as an aerobatic trainer, though only one Piaggio P.11 was built.

Variants

Lincock I

Wooden-construction prototype, one built.

Lincock II

Metal-construction prototype, one built.

Lincock III

Production version, five built.

Piaggio P.11

two-seat aerobatic trainer, one built in Italy.

Operators

 China

Chinese Nationalist Air Force received two aircraft.

 Japan

Imperial Japanese Army Air Force received two aircraft.

Specifications (Lincock III)

Data from Blackburn Aircraft since 1909

General characteristics

Crew: one

Length: 19 ft 6 in (5.94 m)

Wingspan: 22 ft 6 in (6.86 m)

Height: 7 ft 4 in (2.24 m)

Wing area: 170 ft² (15.79 m²)

Empty weight: 1,326 lb (601 kg)

Max. takeoff weight: 2,082 lb (944 kg)

Powerplant: 1 × Armstrong Siddeley Lynx Major seven-cylinder air cooled radial engine, 270 hp (201 kw)

Performance

Maximum speed: 164 mph (143 knots, 264 km/h) at sea level

Range: 380 mi (330 nmi, 612 km)

Service ceiling: 23,000 ft (7,010 m)

Rate of climb: 1,660 ft/m (8.4 m/s)

Armament

Guns: 2 × forward-firing .303 in (7.7 mm) Vickers machine guns.