Blériot XI

French airplane

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". 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.

The Blériot XI, largely designed by Raymond Saulnier, was a development of the Blériot VIII, which Blériot had flown successfully in 1908. Like its predecessor, it was a tractor configuration monoplane with a partially covered box girder fuselage built from ash with wire cross bracing. The principal difference was the use of wing warping for lateral control. The tail surfaces consisted of a small balanced all moving rudder mounted on the rearmost vertical member of the fuselage and a horizontal tailplane mounted under the lower longerons. This had elevator surfaces making up the outermost part of the fixed horizontal surface; these "tip elevators" were linked by a torque tube running through the inner section. The bracing and warping wires were attached to a dorsal, five component "house roof" shaped cabane consisting of a pair of inverted V struts with their apices connected by a longitudinal tube, and an inverted four sided pyramidal ventral cabane, also of steel tubing, below. When first built it had a wingspan of and a small teardrop shaped fin mounted on the cabane, which was later removed. Like its predecessor, it had the engine mounted directly in front of the leading edge of the wing and the main undercarriage was also like that of the Type VIII, with the wheels mounted in castering trailing arms which could slide up and down steel tubes, the movement being sprung by bungee cords. This simple and ingenious design allowed crosswind landings with less risk of damage. A sprung tailwheel was fitted to the rear fuselage in front of the tailplane, with a similar castering arrangement. When shown at the Paris Aero Salon in December 1908, the aircraft was powered by a 7 cylinder R. E. P. engine driving a four bladed paddle type propeller. The aircraft was first flown at Issy les Moulineaux on 23 January 1909. Although the aircraft handled well, the engine proved extremely unreliable and, at the suggestion of his mechanic Ferdinand Collin, Blériot made contact with Alessandro Anzani, a famous motorcycle racer whose successes were due to the engines that he made, and who had recently entered the field of aero engine manufacture. On 27 May 1909, a Anzani 3 cylinder fan configuration (semi radial) engine was fitted. The propeller was also replaced with a Chauvière Intégrale two bladed scimitar propeller made from laminated walnut wood. This propeller design was a major advance in French aircraft technology and was the first European propeller to rival the efficiency of the propellers used by the Wright Brothers. During early July, Blériot was occupied with flight trials of a new aircraft, the two seater Type XII, but resumed flying the Type XI on 18 July. By then, the small cabane fin had been removed and the wingspan increased by On 26 June, he managed a flight lasting 36 minutes 55 seconds, and on 13 July, Blériot won the Aero Club de France's first Prix du Voyage with a flight between Etampes and Orléans.

The Blériot XI gained lasting fame on 25 July 1909, when Blériot crossed the English Channel from Calais to Dover, winning a £1,000 (equivalent to £115,000 in 2018) prize awarded by the Daily Mail. For several days, high winds had grounded Blériot and his rivals: Hubert Latham, who flew an Antoinette monoplane, and Count de Lambert, who brought two Wright biplanes. On 25 July, when the wind had dropped in the morning and the skies had cleared, Blériot took off at sunrise. Flying without the aid of a compass, he deviated to the east of his intended course, but, nonetheless, spotted the English coast to his left. Battling turbulent wind conditions, Blériot made a heavy "pancake" landing, nearly collapsing the undercarriage and shattering one blade of the propeller, but he was unhurt. The flight had taken 36.5 minutes and made Blériot a celebrity, instantly resulting in many orders for copies of his aircraft. The aircraft, which never flew again, was hurriedly repaired and put on display at Selfridges department store in London. It was later displayed outside the offices of the French newspaper Le Matin and eventually bought by the Musee des Arts et Metiers in Paris.

After the successful crossing of the English Channel, there was a great demand for Blériot XIs. By the end of September 1909, orders had been received for 103 aircraft. After an accident at an aviation meeting in Istanbul in December 1909, Blériot gave up competition flying, and the company's entries for competitions were flown by other pilots, including Alfred Leblanc, who had managed the logistics of the cross channel flight, and subsequently bought the first production Type XI, going on to become one of the chief instructors at the flying schools established by Blériot. In February 1912 the future of the Type XI was threatened by the French army placing a ban on the use of all monoplanes. This was the result of a series of accidents in which Blériot aircraft had suffered wing failure in flight. The first of these incidents had occurred on 4 January 1910, killing Léon Delagrange, and was generally attributed to the fact that Delagrange had fitted an over powerful engine, so overstressing the airframe. A similar accident had killed Peruvian pilot Jorge Chavez at the end of 1910 at the end of the first flight over the Alps, and in response to this the wing spars of the Blériot had been strengthened. A later accident prompted further strengthening of the spars. Blériot produced a report for the French government which came to the conclusion that the problem was not the strength of the wing spars but a failure to take into account the amount of downward force to which aircraft wings could be subjected, and that the problem could be solved by increasing the strength of the upper bracing wires. This analysis was accepted, and Blériot's prompt and thorough response to the problem enhanced rather than damaged his reputation. In October 1910, Claude Grahame White won the second competition for the Gordon Bennett Trophy flying a Type XI fitted with a Gnome, beating a similar aircraft flown by Leblanc, which force landed on the last lap. During the race Leblanc had established a new world speed record. In 1911, Andre Beaumont won the Circuit of Europe in a Type XI and another, flown by Roland Garros, came second. Louis Blériot established his first flying school at Etampes near Rouen in 1909. Another was started at Pau, where the climate made year round flying more practical, in early 1910 and in September 1910 a third was established at Hendon Aerodrome near London. A considerable number of pilots were trained: by 1914 nearly 1,000 pilots had gained their Aero Club de France license at the Blériot schools, around half the total number of licences issued. Flight training was offered free to those who had bought a Blériot aircraft: for others, it initially cost 2,000 francs, this being reduced to 800 francs in 1912. A gifted pupil favoured by good weather could gain his license in as little as eight days, although for some it took as long as six weeks. There were no dual control aircraft in these early days, training simply consisting of basic instruction on the use of the controls followed by solo taxying exercises, progressing to short straight line flights and then to circuits. To gain a license, a pilot had to make three circular flights of more than 5 km (3 mi), landing within of a designated point.

The first Blériot XIs entered military service in Italy and France in 1910, and a year later some were used by Italy in North Africa (the first use of heavier than air aircraft in a war) and in Mexico. The British Royal Flying Corps received its first Blériots in 1912. During the early stages of World War I eight French, six British and six Italian squadrons operated various military versions of the aircraft, mainly for observation duties but also as trainers, and in the case of single seaters as light bombers with a bomb load of up to 25 kg.

In addition to the aircraft used by Louis Blériot to make his cross channel flight in 1909, on display in the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris, a number of examples have been preserved. Both the British and American restored to airworthiness examples, each now over a century old and believed to be the two oldest flyable aircraft anywhere on Earth, are usually only "hopped" for short distances due to their uniqueness.

14 – Bleriot XI airworthy at the Shuttleworth Collection 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. 56 – Bleriot XI airworthy at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome 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. 1381 – Bleriot XI 2 bis on display at the Swedish National Museum of Science and Technology in Stockholm. 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. Reproduction – Bleriot XI airworthy at the Montreal Aviation Museum 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. Reproduction – Bleriot IX airworthy with Eric A. Presten in Vineburg, California.

9 – Bleriot XI on static display at the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. It was built in 1911 by Ernest Hall and has a Detroit Aero engine. 76 – Bleriot XI on static display at the National Technical Museum in Prague. It was used by Jan Kašpar. 153 – Bleriot XI on static display at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City, New York. It was originally purchased by Rodman Wanamaker, is the first aircraft to be imported into America, and was acquired from the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome. 164 – Bleriot XI on static display at the Royal Air Force Museum London in London. It has a reproduction fuselage and a six cylinder Anzani engine installed. 686 – Bleriot XI 2 on static display at the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace in Paris, Île de France. 3856 – Bleriot XI on static display at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in Red Hook, New York. It was built in the US in 1911 by the American Aeroplane & Supply House of Hempstead, New York as a "cross country" longer ranged version with a copper ventral fuel tank, and had been in storage at least since November 1915 before its discovery in 1963, and restored in 1975–76 by Cole Palen. It was previously flown at the museum with its pre Monosoupape, seven cylinder 70 HP Gnome engine. It was on display for a period of time at the USS Intrepid Sea Air Space Museum in New York City. Unknown ID – Bleriot XI on static display at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris, Île de France. This is the original Type XI aircraft that Louis Blériot flew across the English Channel on 25 July 1909. Unknown ID – Bleriot XI on static display at the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace in Paris, Île de France. Unknown ID – Bleriot XI on static display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D. C. This aircraft was manufactured in 1914, purchased by Swiss pilot John Domenjoz, and has a Gnôme engine installed. Unknown ID – VanDersarl Bleriot on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, VA. It was built by teenage brothers Jules and Frank A. Van Dersarl of Denver, Colorado. Beginning in 1909, the brothers constructed the aircraft from scratch, including the engine, leading to successful flights with no prior flight instruction in June, 1911. It was successfully restored and flown by Javier Arrango in 2011. Unknown ID – Bleriot XI on static display at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa, Ontario. It was license built by the California Aeroplane Manufacturing and Supply Company in 1911 for John W. Hamilton and has an Elbridge Aero Special 60 hp engine installed. Unknown ID – Bleriot XI Mk II "Looper" on static display at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, New South Wales. This aircraft was flown by Maurice Guillaux with first Australian airmail from Melbourne to Sydney in 1914. Unknown ID – Bleriot XI on static display at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, Bavaria. Unknown ID – Bleriot XI on static display at the Museo del Aire in Madrid. Originally owned by S. García Cames, it was rebuilt by Juan Vilanova and Luis Acedo and has been on display at the museum since 1968. Unknown ID – Monoplane on static display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. It was built by Ernest C. Hall in 1911, who donated it to the museum in 1969. Unknown ID – Bleriot XI on static display at the Museo Nacional de Aeronáutica de Argentina in Morón, Buenos Aires. The aircraft has replica wings and is powered by a "W" three cylinder Anzani 25 hp engine. Unknown ID – Bleriot XI on static display at the Flieger Flab Museum in Dübendorf, Switzerland. The aircraft was manufactured in 1914
Reproduction – Bleriot IX on static display at the South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum in Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Replica – Bleriot XI on static display at the Brooklands Museum in Weybridge, Surrey. Replica – Bleriot XI on static display at Flugausstellung Hermeskeil in Hermeskeil, Rhineland Palatinate. Replica – Bleriot XI on static display at the College Park Aviation Museum in College Park, Maryland. Replica – Bleriot XIII on static display at the United States Army Aviation Museum at Fort Novosel near Ozark, Alabama. It is one of the first known replicas and was built in the 1930s.