A blast from the past
In preparation for the release of the new "Tripods and Triplanes" expansion, I thought I would re-examine why the British failed to use rockets in WW1, I discovered that the most "High-Tec" weapon that the Admiralty/ RFC were experimenting with were called "Ranken darts" I've heard of Flechettes (Heavy metal darts, dropped out of the plane by hand), But "Ranken darts" were air-dropped one pound explosive incendiary flechette-styled missile-shaped bombs, which were usually carried in packs of 24; (The darts could be dropped individually or all at once), Then after more research I came across the plane designed to carry the weapon into action,
The "Twin Blackburn" an Anti-Zeppelin fighter no less, It's Introduction to the war was in 1916, to be flown by the Royal Naval Air Service, it was one of the most specialized aircraft ever constructed by Great Britain, This due to the heavy Zeppelin raids of the winter of 1914–15, The British Admiralty issued a requirement for a two-seat aircraft with long endurance and the capability to attack Zeppelins, a second requirement of the new machine was the ability to carry the new incendiary Ranken darts, the design was to be able to fly above the Zeppelin and drop Ranken darts onto the airships in the hope of igniting their gas envelopes,
The Admiralty placed an order for nine Blackburn TBs, in March 1915, The "Twin Blackburn" or "TB" was a seaplane with twin fuselages, situated 10 feet apart, with the pilot in one fuselage and the observer in the other, having no means of communication other than hand signals. Each of the twin fuselages was a wooden structure with fabric covering, with a tractor engine in front of each fuselage, it was intended that the TB would be powered by two 150 hp (112 kW) Smith Static radial engines, but due to the unsuitability of these engines (lack of power), two Gnome Monosoupape 9 Type B-2 engines were mounted.
The TB first took to the air in August 1915. Alas the TB still had a lack of power, as a result the aircraft was unable to climb above 8,000 feet with the required three canisters (72 darts) of Ranken darts. So they removed one of the canisters, reducing the number of darts to 48, In the hope of improving performance of the TB the decision was taken to yet again replace the engines with, 110 hp (80 kW) Clerget engines, this still left the TB with insufficient power, seven of the nine TB's where delivered to the Royal Naval Air Service, four served at RNAS Killingholme, where they saw almost no action.
The TB was retired from service in 1917, all nine machines were broken up, Blackburn's first multi-engine plane had been a total failure, failing to bring down a single Zeppelin.
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Thanks Drew & Mike for those fascinating pieces of info.
Originally Posted by Flying Officer Kyte
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