Blackburn Dart - Operational History

Operational History

The Dart T.2 entered service with the Fleet Air Arm in 1923 with No 460 Flight aboard HMS Eagle stationed in the Mediterranean and with 461 and 462 Flights on HMS Furious based in home waters. Shore training was conducted by "D3" Flight at Gosport. In 1928, the Blackburn Dart flew with Nos. 463 and 464 Flights embarked on HMS Courageous in the Mediterranean fleet. The following year, a single Dart was delivered to No. 36 Squadron RAF (Coastal Defence Torpedo Flight), initially for smoke-screen trials and later to form part of the complement of torpedo bombers in the first fully operational Royal Air Force torpedo bomber squadron.

Three Darts were converted into two-seat seaplanes to provide advanced training from 1925 to 1929, at Blackburn's RAF Reserve School on the River Humber. The conversions led to a new variant, the T.3 Velos, which was ordered as a torpedo bomber by the Greek Navy in 1925.

The Dart continued in service with the Blackburn Reserve School, alongside a number of T.3s converted to landplanes until their eventual replacement by Ripons and Baffins in 1933.

One notable event marked the career of the Dart; Air Commodore G.H. Boyce became the first pilot to carry out a night deck landing, when he landed his Dart aboard Furious on 6 May 1926. The flight deck was illuminated by flood lights for the attempt but the docile Dart easily handled the task.