The former Blackburn Aircraft Factory
Introduction
The photograph on this page of The former Blackburn Aircraft Factory by Lairich Rig as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk

Image: © Lairich Rig Taken: 8 Aug 2005
Construction of these factory buildings began in 1937, as a result of a business partnership between Sir Maurice Denny, Managing Director of the Dumbarton firm Denny Shipbuilders, and Robert Blackburn, of Yorkshire's Blackburn Aeroplane and Motor Company. The site on which the factory stood was called Barge Park; completed machines would be taken across the River Clyde by barge to Abbotsinch airfield. Aircraft built here included the Blackburn Shark B6 Mark III (a torpedo/spotter/reconnaissance biplane, assembled from components manufactured in Yorkshire), the Short Sunderland (a flying boat patrol bomber, built entirely at this site), and many others. By early 1961, the factory had closed. As the photo shows, the factory buildings survived rather longer, becoming part of a bottling plant. However, they have now been demolished; see Image For a detailed history of the factory, and of the circumstances surrounding its creation, and for details of the aircraft that were produced here, the best source of information is the booklet "The Blackburn: Dumbarton's Aircraft Factory" (1996) by Alan M. Sherry. The photograph was taken from one of the batteries of Dumbarton Castle. For views of the buildings from the road beside them, see Image and Image