Blériot XI "La Manche"
July 25, 1909, 4:41am: Louis Blériot embarks from Calais, lands in Dover 36 minutes later. He becomes the first person to cross the English Channel by airplane. The milestone in aviation history came at an expensive cost.
Blériot had earned his fortune as an owner of a factory which manufactured lamps for automobiles. He entered the field of aircraft construction in 1900. His first ten constructions were unsuccessful and he was faced with bankruptcy. With the little money he had he could construct the Blériot XI which he baptized "La Manche". The fabric-covered monoplane was entirely manufactured and constructed out of wood. The wings allow for transport during take-off. The high rudders are suitable as separate wings on the undercarriage. Control is achieved through wind across the wings.
The British daily newspaper "Daily Mail" set a price in 1910 of approximately 1,000 Pounds for the Calais-Dover flight. Several pilots had already tried and failed. Blériot achieved success with his "La Manche", however, air screws and the undercarriage were damaged during the landing in Dover. In contrast to the other pioneers of aviation, Blériot was convinced that the future belonged to monoplanes not biplanes. The initial flight of "La Manche" took place on January 23. There was initially a R.E.P motor with 28 PS. The "La Manche" had an Anzani-motor which allowed for 25 PS. Even prior to the flight over the English Channel, Blériot had broken another record: on June 26, 1909, he increased the flight duration record to 36 minutes and 55 seconds. He developed several other versions with very powerful engines modeled after the Blériot XI which were in the series. While "La Manche" still had an Anzani-motor which achieved a top speed of 74 kilometers an hour, the next version Blériot XI-2 already attained 104 kilometers an hour with the use of the Gnome-motor and maintained in the air for three and a half hours. There was hardly an aviator in Europe that did not want a Blériot XI of his own. In 1913, Blériot made 800 of the 1,294 airplanes that were manufactured in France. Prior to 1914, it was the most often constructed aircraft model in Europe.
The armed forces of France, Great Britain, Italy and Switzerland utilized the one or two-seated aircraft as an unarmed scouting and artillery observation aircraft. The aircraft was already being utilized on the front lines in Lybia during the Turkish-Italian War of 1911. The model remained in use until the outbreak of World War I and was first made obsolete in 1915.
Technical data
Blériot XI "La Manche"
| Power Plant | Anzani (74 HP) |
Performance
| Top Speed | 74 | km/h |
Weight
| Maximum Take-off weight | 320 | kg |
Dimensions
| Lenght | 7,81 | m |
| Height | 2.52 | m |
| Span | 7.81 | m |
| Crew | 1 | person |
Stock Quotes
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