In 1916, the Blackburn Aircraft Company designed and built two prototypes of an anti-submarine floatplane designated the Blackburn G.P. or Blackburn General Purpose. It was not ordered but Blackburn developed a landplane version as the Blackburn R.T.1 Kangaroo (Reconnaissance Torpedo Type 1). The first aircraft was delivered to Martlesham Heath in January 1918. Test results were disappointing, with the rear fuselage being prone to twisting and the aircraft suffering control problems, which lead to the existing order for 50 aircraft being cut back to 20, most of which were already part built.

From the sixth aircraft onwards, they were powered by the more powerful Rolls-Royce Falcon III engine replacing the 250 hp (120 kW) Rolls-Royce Falcon II. The Kangaroo entered service later that year with No. 246 Squadron RAF based at Seaton Carew, County Durham which had six months of wartime operations and they sank one U-Boat, UC-70, which was spotted lying submerged on the sea bottom near Runswick Bay on 28 August 1918 by a Kangaroo flown by Lt E. F. Waring (represented in model), the U-boat being badly damaged by a near miss by a 520 lb (240 kg) bomb and finished off by the destroyer HMS Ouse, and damaged four others.

DOWNLOADABLE MODEL

1/48 and 1/72 scales