Blériot XI
The Blériot XI is a French aircraft from the pioneer era of aviation. The first example was used by Louis Blériot to make the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air aircraft, on 25 July 1909. This is one of the most famous accomplishments of the pioneer era of aviation, and not only won Blériot a lasting place in history but also assured the future of his aircraft manufacturing business. The event caused a major reappraisal of the importance of aviation; the English newspaper The Daily Express led its story of the flight with the headline "Britain is no longer an Island".[1]
The aircraft was produced in both single- and two-seat versions, powered by several different engines, and was widely used for competition and training purposes. Military versions were bought by many countries, continuing in service until after the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Two restored examples – one in the United Kingdom and one in the United States – of original Blériot XI aircraft are thought to be the two oldest flyable aircraft in the world.
Baron , who made the first flight of a heavier-than-air craft in Norway on 14 October 1910. He made a flight of 23 minutes and reached a height of 300 metres (983.9 feet).[16]
Carl Cederström
– French-Peruvian aviator who crossed the Alps in 1910, but crashed on arrival and was killed.[17]
Jorge Chavez
(André Beaumont) In 1911 won the Paris-Rome race, the Circuit d'Europe (Tour of Europe) on 7 July and the Daily Mail Circuit of Britain Race on 26 July 1911.
Jean Conneau
(Austro-Hungarian Monarchy) On 28 August 1911 Antal Lányi successfully flew over the Lake Balaton (biggest lake of Europe) from Badacsony to Fonyód with a Blériot XI airplane.
Antal Lányi
– Anglo-Irish aviator who made the first successful flight from Britain to Ireland in April 1912.[18]
Denys Corbett-Wilson
– One of the first people to fly an aircraft in France, killed on 4 January 1910 flying a Blériot XI when a wing failed.[19]
Leon Delagrange
Carlo Piazza – On 22/23 October 1911, Captain Piazza of the Air Services conducted the first aerial reconnaissance flight, between Tripoli and Ain Zara during the Italo-Turkish War.[20]
Italian Royal Army
– Won second place in the 1911 Circuit of Europe race, and set two world altitude records in 1912 in an adapted Type XI, flying to 5,000 m (16,000 ft) on 6 September 1912[23]
Roland Garros
Won the 1910 Gordon Bennett Trophy race, held in New York, flying a Blériot[24]
Claude Grahame-White
– Went to the Blériot school in 1910 after having built his own small unsuccessful aircraft in 1909. During a flight across the Pyrenees Mountains in the 1911 Paris to Madrid air race he and his Blériot XI were attacked by a large eagle, which Gilbert drove off by firing a pistol.[25]
Eugène Gilbert
– Norwegian aviator, first to cross the North Sea from Scotland to Norway, on 30 July 1914. The flight set a record for the longest flight over open water, a distance of 450 km (280 mi) taking 4 hours and 10 minutes.[26]
Tryggve Gran
– French aviator, visited Australia April–October 1914. Flew Australia's first air mail and air freight from Melbourne to Sydney, 16–18 July 1914.[27]
Maurice Guillaux
– Flew the world's first regular airmail service between Hendon and Windsor in September 1911.[28]
Gustav Hamel
– A former racing car driver who took up aviation and designed his own monoplane. On 2 April 1910, flying a Bleriot XI, he became the second (after Delagrange) fatality in the type after crashing in San Sebastian, Spain.
Hubert Le Blon
– Broke the flight airspeed record on 29 October 1910 while flying a Blériot XI. His speed was calculated at 68.20 mph (109.76 km/h): on 11 April 1911 he raised the record to 111.8 km/h[31]
Alfred Leblanc
– Fifth licensed woman pilot in the U.S. Chosen as pilot to demonstrate the Moisant-Bleriot monoplane to the U.S. Army in 1912.
Bernetta Miller
– First airmail pilot in the United States, used a Blériot XI to carry a sack of mail from Garden City, New York to Mineola, NY[33]
Earle Ovington
– First licensed female pilot in the United States; first female to fly the English Channel solo.[35] Died on 1 July 1912 when she and her passenger were ejected from her new Blériot XI-2.
Harriet Quimby
– Swiss aviator who first flew on 22 March 1910, in his newly bought Blériot XI, and flew about 150,000 kilometres (93,000 mi) during the next five years, using various aircraft, among them the Blériot XI, Morane-Borel monoplane, Dufaux 4, Dufaux 5 and SIAI S.13 seaplane.[37]
Emile Taddéoli
– Ottoman-born Turkish fighter pilot who was the first black pilot in aviation history.
Ahmet Ali Çelikten
Argentine Air Force
14 – Bleriot XI airworthy at the in Old Warden, Bedfordshire. Built in 1909 and now with the British civil registration G-AANG, this is the world's oldest airworthy aircraft. It is powered by a three-cylinder "W form" Anzani engine.[44][45]
Shuttleworth Collection
56 – Bleriot XI airworthy at the in Red Hook, New York. It is powered by a 120°-angle regular "radial" Anzani three-cylinder engine and bears U.S. civil registration N60094. The front and back thirds of the fuselage are original.[46][47]
Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome
1381 – Bleriot XI-2 bis on display at the in Stockholm.[48][49] A Blériot XI, the oldest airworthy museum aircraft in Sweden, manufactured in 1918 under licence by AETA, Enoch Thulins Aeroplane Works, in Landskrona, Sweden, as type Thulin A, has been owned by the museum since 1928. Following a two-year restoration by Mikael Carlson, the Blériot XI made what was probably its maiden flight to celebrate the Centenary of Flight in Sweden, at the Stockholm Festival of Flight on 20–22 August 2010. Registered with the Swedish Civil Air Traffic Authority in 2010 as SE-AEC, the Blériot uses its original rotary engine, a Thulin-built copy of the Gnome Omega.
Swedish National Museum of Science and Technology
Reproduction – Bleriot XI airworthy at the in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec. It is a reproduction of the Blériot XI "Le Scarabée", flown over Montreal by Count Jacques de Lesseps in 1910, built by volunteers at the museum. They spent nearly 15 years building this exacting reproduction from original blueprints; its first flight took place in September 2014.[50]
Montreal Aviation Museum
Crew: 1
Length: 7.62 m (25 ft 0 in)
Wingspan: 7.79 m (25 ft 7 in)
Height: 2.69 m (8 ft 10 in)
Wing area: 14 m2 (150 sq ft)
Empty weight: 230 kg (507 lb)
Powerplant: 1 × 3-cyl. air-cooled fan-style radial piston engine, 19 kW (25 hp)
Anzani 3-cyl. fan
Propellers: 2-bladed , 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) diameter
Chauvière Intégrale
Data from [83]
General characteristics
Performance
Angelucci, Enzo. The Rand McNally Encyclopedia of Military Aircraft, 1914–1980. San Diego, California: The Military Press, 1983. 0-517-41021-4.
ISBN
Charlson, Carl and , directors. A Daring Flight (DVD). Boston: WGBH Boston Video, 2005.
Christian Cascio
Crouch, Tom D. Blériot XI: The Story of a Classic Aircraft. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1982. 978-0-87474-345-6.
ISBN
Duwelz, Yves (February 2002). "Les Blériot XI de l'aviation militaire belge" [The Bleriot XIs of the Belgian Air Component]. Avions: Toute l'Aéronautique et son histoire (in French) (107): 56–60. 1243-8650.
ISSN
Duwelz, Yves (March 2002). "Les Blériot XI de l'aviation militaire belge". Avions: Toute l'Aéronautique et son histoire (in French) (108): 48–54. 1243-8650.
ISSN
Elliott, Bryan A. Blériot: Herald of an Age. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Tempus, 2000. 0-7524-1739-8.
ISBN
Munson, Kenneth. Bombers, Patrol and Reconnaissance Aircraft 1914–1919 (Blandford Colour Series). London: Associate R.Ae.S., 1977.
. Blue Ribbon of the Air. Washington: Smithsonian Press, 1987. ISBN 0-87474-942-5.
Villard, Henry Serrano
. Contact! The Story of the Early Aviators. Boston: Dover Publications, 2002. ISBN 978-0-486-42327-2.
Villard, Henry Serrano
Vivien, F. Louis. Paris: librairie des Sciences aéronautiques, 1905. (Original 1911 AVIA book French book with Blériot XI characteristics and specifications).
"Description détaillée du monoplan Blériot" (in French).
Wauthy, Jean-Luc; De Neve, Florimond (March 1995). "Les aéronefs de la Force Aérienne belge: Première partie: 1909–1918". Le Fana de l'Aviation (in French). No. 304. pp. 56–61.
Benichou, Michel (February 1991). "Jean Salis et le Blériot XI-2" [Jean Salis and the Blériot XI-2]. Le Fana de l'Aviation (in French) (255): 26–29. 0757-4169.
ISSN
Hartmann, Gérard. [The Reims Military Aviation Competition, 1911] (PDF). Dossiers historiques et techniques aéronautique française (in French). Gérard Hartmann. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
"Le grand concours d'aviation militaire de Reims 1911"
Moulin, Jean (October 2004). "Reims 1911, le premier concours d'appareils militaires au monde!" [Reims 1911, the First Military Aircraft Concours in the World!]. Avions: Toute l'aéronautique et son histoire (in French) (139): 51–58. 1243-8650.