The Blackburn IV was developed as a refinement of the preceding members of the Bluebird series; in addition to its all-metal airframe, it was noticeably more streamlined and its structure was simplified as to more readily facilitate its construction.

One month prior to the first flight, the prototype Bluebird IV had already been sold to a private owner that, only two weeks following, undertook a five-week long-distance journey to South Africa with it.

Several of the privately owned Bluebird IVs undertook a number of pioneering long-distance flights, the most famous of which was the round-the-world trip by Mrs Victor Bruce.

[3] One substantial change, was the decision to adopt an all-metal airframe; this was designed in a manner that was also simplified considerably from its wooden predecessor so that the manufacturing process would be both easier and faster.

Its rectangular-section basic structure comprised four equal-length longerons paired with U-shaped stringers composed of duralumin; they were fitted onto supporting stubs that enabled rapid removal for inspections and maintenance work alike.

[2] The tail unit, the structure of which comprised duralumin ribs and steel-tube spars, had an in-flight adjustable incidence, achieved via a notched quadrant level in the cockpit.

A noticeable improvement in ride quality while taxing was achieved by abandoning a cross-axle undercarriage arrangement in favour of a divided counterpart that had oil-damped spiral steel springs.

[8] Several detailed refinements were made to the structure for the purpose of speeding up construction, such as rivetting the fuselage stringers to the formers; the production line was reportedly capable of producing four aircraft per week.

[10] The primary reason for its termination appears to have been an emerging lack of capacity at Saunders-Roe, the company wanting to direct its resources towards a new generation of amphibians.

[6][11] However, it unfortunately suffered from a high attrition rate, several aircraft were reportedly lost in fatal crashes, which included a number of unexplained dives into the ground from normal cruising flight.

[14] Another aircraft reportedly performed the first purely commercial flight around Australia in a sales tour that started on 24 October 1931 and ended on 6 December of that year.