The Vildebeest was designed for the RAF by R K Pierson of Vickers to replace the Hawker Horsley, and the prototype (N230) flew with a Bristol Jupiter VIII engine at Martlesham Heath in April 1928.

In April 1940 the US Bureau of Aeronautics placed a contract with Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation for the construction of two prototypes of a three-seat carrier-borne torpedo bomber known as the XTBF-1.

The Baffin was designed by Major F A Bumpus to meet a Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm requirement, and was built by the Blackburn Aircraft & Motor Co Ltd of Brough, in Yorkshire to succeed the company’s Ripon as the standard torpedo bomber with the FAA for operation from that