I guess this is a rookie question, but what's the deal with Blackhawk drives? What were they made for? Why?
When did they come out? Are they any good for anything?

They seem like a fairly radical departure from normal drive design and I just wondered if it works?

I have never seen one in person and I find it hard to even find pics of one on a boat. Anyone have one?

I don't want to buy one, I'm just curious. Call it 'personal development' if you will.

the black hawk was made by merc high performance, low profile, twin prop, like the bravo 3 just a lot shorter, ended up not working so well, the boat had to have a very specific type of bottom or it didn't work, there are some outthere but not many, most are hiding in the back of someones garage.

If I recall they were popular on the 29 scarab with twins but not on much else because the problems listed above.
Thumper

Not totally true. The BH was a true "surface drive". They were designed to have NONE of the lower gear case run IN the water unlike a B3. They work exceptionallly well on single cats and some v's.. My daytona went from 83 to 91 with just a drive change from a bravo to a BH. It also stopped me from needing new upper gears every 50 hrs. Now I have 160 hard hrs on a BH drive swinging 31's and no failures. So long as a hull has natural bow lift, they work very well. Several guys redoing 20 ciggies have gone to BH drives and are very happy with the results. Merc canned the program because of misuse by builders and the increased cost of the BH drive not being accepted by the consumer.

It's a twin prop counter rotating surface drive,about 8 inches shorter than a Bravo 1. They work well on boats that have a built in rocker(so I have heard). Also they work with some cats.Airpacker uses one with good results. Hard to get parts and props for them.

Parts easy, BIG props hard

Look at 1996-ish Donzi 22 blackhawk boats.... made for the drive. Made some 20 cigs from the factory, 24 fountain, etc