I´ve been scratching my head for a number of years regarding one of the earliest private aircraft to fly in Iceland. It was a Blackburn Bluebird IV that was imported to Iceland in 1936.
What I THINK it is, is a Bluebird IV and it is reported as such in all material on Icelandic aviation history. Anyway, here is a picture:
The head scratching has been due to the fact that the Bluebird IV is usually described as having an all metal fuselage. The example in the photo above, clearly has a fabric covering so I´m now starting to think that the all metal fuselage ONLY applies to the structure not the covering. Is that correct?
Now for the next thing. Would it be possible to establish an ownership history for the aircraft while in the UK? I´ve gone to the G-INFO database of deregistered aircraft, as I know from photos of it when it arrived that it was previously registered as G-AAOF. The G-INFO is not really helpful, as it states the aircraft was registered on the 16th of June 1936. It was, however, registered as TF-ISL in July of 1936!! Something does not add up here!!
There is a stamp on the G-INFO registration form that reads “This entry is copied, on the 1st of January (unreadable, but might be 1939) from a former Register” Does this mean that all info about the aircraft´s previous owners and year of production are now lost?
Is anything know about Blackburn´s construction techniques of the fuselage? Would it have been built in a similar way as, say, a Tiger Moth or something completely different?
And now the biggest question of them all! Are there any drawings (preferably construction drawings) surviving for this type?
Sigurjon the optimist!
By: avion ancien - 22nd July 2015 at 18:11
I’ve received an e-mail from Carey Chapman (q.v. her posts of 19 January 2011) today. She wanted to post here again but had forgotten her password! Thus she’s asked me to relate here the gist of her message to me. It is as follows:
‘About 25 years ago a historian called at my door ( I live in Mrs B old house) unannounced and told me that when he was writing a history of the Spanish Civil War in the 1970s he visited Mrs B during his research. He had uncovered reports that she had been involved in breaching the restriction on exporting planes to Spain. Mrs B got very angry and sent him packing with threats of legal action if he ever made such a suggestion again. However some time after that I received a long letter from an old man, Ken, who had worked for Air Dispatch in the 1930’s in Croydon. The Air Dispatch hangers were close to the RAF disposal centre where decommissioned RAF planes were sold. Well Mrs B certainly did buy planes and had them flown out to Spain, sometimes painting them white with a red cross to try and fool the authorities that they were air ambulances. Later planes were flown along the Chanel and out over the Atlantic to avoid being detected. To fly the planes so far they would have extra drums of fuel in the hold which had to be manually pumped into the planes fuel tanks, a job which Ken did on a number of occasions. The pilot was paid £400 and the “pump boy” £100 and they had to find there own way back from Spain.’
Whilst not relating to her Bluebird, I concede, I think that the anecdote is interesting, nonetheless, and worthy of being related here.
By: Mothminor - 19th July 2015 at 22:57
Found a very nice Scottish Screen Archive video featuring footage (from approx. 7 mins) of Airspeed Ferry; HP Hinaidi; Fox Moth; Wapiti(?) amongst others and right at the end Bluebird IV G-AAOJ.
Filmed at Renfrew, Glasgow in 1931.
By: John Aeroclub - 19th January 2011 at 23:34
From my collection The Hon Mr’s Victor Bruce’s Blackburn Bluebird. Photographed at Sealand c1930.
John
By: Carey Chapman - 19th January 2011 at 22:18
My connection , and interest, started when I bought her house here in Bradford on Avon in 1985. Sadly I never actually met her.. she had moved out to live with her son, she would have been 90 years old then. But I am sure you would have met her here at Priory Steps. As I mentioned I have been collecting memorabillia and ephemera ever since. I also gives talks about her life and exploits to local interest groups. Carey
By: avion ancien - 19th January 2011 at 21:02
Carey, are you connected with the redoubtable late Mrs B? I am aware that she used to live in Bradford. I met her once, in the mid 1970s, when I was working for the local authority on a placement from university. I discovered that I had been sent to see her because no-one else in my department wanted to do so. She had a certain ‘reputation’ of which I, as the ‘new kid on the block’, was hitherto unaware. I remember returning from the encounter thinking that I had definitely come out second best!
By: Arabella-Cox - 19th January 2011 at 19:38
Carey………….
Welcome to the Forum. Sounds as though you have a very interesting archive there.
Planemike
By: Carey Chapman - 19th January 2011 at 19:02
Are you still looking for information about Blackburn Bluebird IV
Hello, Your post came up when I was looking for info on Bluebird iV, and I have joined the forum to see if you need any further info? I have original sales literature for the Bluebird IV copies of drawings, many photos and orinigal slides. I have seen the last airworthy one which is at Brough, maintained by the apprentices. I am not a plane expert but my interest is in Mrs Victor Bruce who was the first lady to fly solo around the world, (apart from a boat accross the pacific and atlantic), which she did in a Bluebird IV, and I collect all sorts of memorabillia about her so I have accumulated quite a lot about the Bluebird. The pictures from an earlier post are of Mrs Bs plane. It is aluminium bodied… sadly I do not have any of the bodywork although part of it did exist about 25 years ago and I think it was thrown out by mistake when her house was being cleared. Anyway let me know if I can be of any further help, Carey
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August 16, 2010 at 2:07 am