Blackburne (motorcycles)

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. Burney and Blackburne also made small aircraft engines.
Blackburne Motorcycles.
The origins of the Blackburne motorcycle engine start with Geoffrey de Havilland, who had designed and built a motor cycle before he became interested in aviation. In about 1905 he sold the designs and patterns to two student friends for £5 when he was short of money, and they went on to form the Blackburne engine company. There are two known surviving engines, one of 1100 cc and the other the 1500 cc unit at the Shuttleworth museum at Old Warden, although there may be others.
Note that the Blackburne engines are not related to the [[Blackburn Aircraft]] Company (founded by [[Robert Blackburn (aviation pioneer)|Robert Blackburn]]), even though the [[Blackburn Bluebird]] was a Blackburn aircraft with a Blackburne engine.
The [[de Havilland Humming Bird|De Havilland DH53 Humming Bird]] was a 1923 ultra-light plane, the first two initially powered by Douglas engines, but they changed to Blackburne engines to get improved reliability . The last two made were involved in experiments to launch and recover them from the R33 airship.
<br>[[File:DHHummingB.jpg|thumb|400px|center|DHHummingB]]
See also.
[[Category:Motorcycle manufacturers of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Defunct aircraft engine manufacturers of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of England]]
[[Category:Defunct companies based in Surrey]]