Major F. A. Bumpus designed the R.1, whose doubled Blackburn name has two competing explanations. Jackson links it to the Lancashire town that shared the manufacturer's name. An alternative account, traced to Admiralty documents, says the R.1 needed a name and simply repeated the maker's name. Jackson's version is treated with some scepticism because of his romantic view of the company's history.
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Why the R.1 became the Blackburn Blackburn
Two accounts explain the R.1's doubled Blackburn name: a Lancashire place-name and the reuse of the manufacturer's name.