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Description: | 18th June 1919.
The large twin engined Biplane in this picture is a Blackburn Kangaroo Torpedo Bomber. Blackburn Aircraft Company's head office was on Balm Road in Hunslet, with factories at the Olympia works on Roundhay Road and at Brough in East Yorkshire. The Olympia works was where Tesco now stands and the aircrafts were flown off from Soldiers Field at Roundhay Park. This type entered service in early 1918 but only twenty were built. Ten of these went to 246 squadron at Seaton Carew near Hartlepool for anti-submarine and convoy patrol work. They managed to attack eleven u-boats, sinking at least one and damaging four others before the war ended. After the war many were bought by fielding civilian aviation companies. The Kangaroo carried the first genuine commercial overseas freight charter flight on the 5/03/20, transporting raincoats to Amsterdam! They were also used for passenger flights between Leeds (Roundhay), London (Hounslow) and Amsterdam. The Leeds/London fare was ?30 return. These aircraft had been converted to carry seven passengers in a glazed cabin. The last Kangeroo was scrapped at Sherburn-in-Elmet in 1929. The Yorkshire Flying Club has a propellor from one of these aircraft which has been preserved. | License: | http://www.leodis.net/article.aspx?id=12 | Rights holder: | Leeds Central Library | Subjects: | Royal Air Force Aircraft Exhibition war Roundhay Park | Source: | Leodis - A photographic archive of Leeds | Identifier: | http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?id=20... | Go to resource |
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