The Blackburn Aircraft Company was formed in the period running up to the First World War. Robert Blackburn had seen early flight in France and decided he wanted to build aeroplanes. He started in Leeds and expanded to produce planes for mainly the Royal Navy. Then in the 1930s, the Fleet Air Arm which continued until 1960, when the company became part of Hawker Siddeley Aviation.

During the 1940s Blackburn were responsible for most of the Fairey Swordfish and Short Sunderland production built under licence. From 1960 Hawker Siddely used the site for continued production of the Buccaneer, then the Hawker Hawk Trainer.