Wing Commander Harold Blackburn MC AFC (19 January 1879 – 29 April 1959) was a British aviation pioneer.

As a "dividend" for his investment, Harold Blackburn was given a motorcycle and sidecar which was later used to promote flying displays in Yorkshire.

[9] They visited locales that had seen little or nothing of flying, such as Bridlington where Blackburn took 9-year-old American Isla Tudor up to a height of 6,000 feet (1,800 m).

[11] On 2 October 1913 Blackburn and Dr. Christie won the Wars of the Roses air race, a competition sponsored by the Yorkshire Evening News between the Yorkshire-built Type I monoplane and the Lancashire-built Avro 504 biplane, piloted by F. P. Raynham with Humphrey Verdon Roe as passenger.

On 2 April, accompanied by 17-year-old actress Mai Bacon (promoted as "Little Miss Independent"), he delivered special editions of the newspaper to Chesterfield.

Upon the outbreak of World War I Harold Blackburn joined the Royal Flying Corps, receiving his Certificate 'B’ (no.

The squadron commenced operations in the Sinai and Palestine campaign in November 1915, defending the Suez Canal from Turkish invasion.

22 (Reserve) Squadron in Egypt though he later saw further service in England and France, for which he received the Air Force Cross[17] Blackburn achieved the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and was mentioned in despatches several times, including a special commendation for his work in the Palestinian campaign from General Sir Archibald Murray.

He was second-in-command at RAF Henlow, until September 1924, when he left to become base commander at the Aeroplane & Armament Experimental Establishment (A.