Blériot XI

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Blériot XI
Role Civil tourer/trainer/military
Manufacturer Louis Blériot
Designer Louis Blériot and Raymond Saulnier
First flight 23 January 1909

The Blériot XI is the aircraft that, on 25 July 1909, was used by Louis Blériot to make the first flight across the English Channel made in a heavier-than-air aircraft. This achievement is one of the most famous accomplishments of the early years 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]

Contents

[edit] Design and development

Blériot XI as first built: note small fin on cabane.

The Blériot XI, 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 differences were the use of wing-warping for lateral control, and the tailplane, which had a small balanced rudder and a single rectangular horizontal tailplane with tip-mounted elevators mounted under the lower longerons of the fuselage. Like its predecessor, the bracing and warping wires were attached to a cabane structure made of steel tubing above the fuselage and an inverted pyramid, also of steel tubing, below it. When first built, a small teardrop-shaped fin was mounted on the cabane, but this was later removed. The main undercarriage was also like that of the Type VIII, the wheels being mounted in castering trailing arms which could slide up and down steel tubes, the movement being sprung by bungee cords. This simple and ingenuous design allowed crosswind landings with less risk of damage.

When shown at the Paris Aero Salon in December 1908, the aircraft was powered by a 35 hp (26 kW) 7-cylinder R.E.P. engine driving a four-bladed paddle type propeller, but this engine proved extremely unreliable and, at the suggestion of his mechanic Ferdinand Collin, Blériot made contact with Alexandre Anzani, a famous motorcycle racer whose successes were due to the engines which he manufactured, and who had recently entered the field of aero-engine manufacture. On 27 May 1909, the 25 horsepower (19 kW) Anzani 3-cylinder engine, produced in fan or semi-radial configurations, was fitted. The propeller was also replaced with a Chauvière two-bladed 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[2].

[edit] Operational history

[edit] The Channel Crossing

See Louis Bleriot: Channel crossing

The original Blériot XI on which Louis Blériot crossed the Channel in 1909. Musée des Arts et Métiers, Paris.

The Blériot XI gained aviation immortality on 25 July 1909 when Louis Blériot crossed the English Channel from Calais to Dover in 36.5 minutes, using an Anzani engine designed by the Italian engineer Alessandro Anzani.[3] For several days, bad weather grounded Blériot and his opponents: Hubert Latham, who flew an Antoinette monoplane, and Count de Lambert, who brought two Wright Biplanes.

That morning, to conditions fair enough to fly in, when Blériot took off, Latham's camp was still quiet as Latham had overslept. Fighting fog and bad weather, Blériot did not even have a compass to guide his crossing. Reputedly, his Anzani engine completed the flight only with the aid of a brief rain shower to cool it off. Letting the aircraft guide itself, Blériot eventually saw the grey line of the English coast.

Approaching closer and closer, Blériot spotted a French reporter waving the French flag to mark the landing spot. He made a rough landing during which the landing gear collapsed and the propeller shattered; but Blériot walked away, winning the £1,000 prize awarded by the Daily Mail. 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 La Musee des Arts et Metiers.

[edit] Further development

After the successful crossing of the channel, there was a great demand for Blériot XIs. Blériot began to turn his attention from flying to the aircraft manufacturing business. By September 1909, Blériot had received orders for 101 aircraft. Later versions of the Blériot XI used various engines including more powerful Gnome rotary engines and updated Anzani engines. Blériot marketed the aircraft in four categories: trainers, sport or touring models, military aircraft, and racing or exhibition aircraft.

Anzani engined Blériot XI similar to the aircraft used for the Channel flight
Detail of replica Blériot XI wing, Hamburg Airport Days, 2007

[edit] Military use

The first Blériot XIs entered military service in Italy and France in 1910, and a year later, some of those were used in action by Italy in North Africa (the first use of aircraft in a war) and in Mexico.[4] The Royal Flying Corps received its first Blériots in 1912. During the early stages of the First World War, eight French, six British and six Italian squadrons operated various military versions of the aircraft, mainly in 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.

[edit] Famous Blériot Monoplane pilots

Oskar Bider starting from Bern to his flight over the Alps
  • Oskar Bider - Swiss aviator who flew over the Pyrenees and the Alps in 1913.[5]
  • Baron Carl Calle Cederström, 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).[6]
  • Jorge Chavez - French-Peruvian aviator who crossed the Alps in 1910, but crashed on arrival and was killed.[7]
  • Denys Corbett-Wilson - Anglo-Irish aviator who made the first successful flight from Britain to Ireland in April 1912.[8]
  • Leon Delagrange - One of the first people to fly an aircraft in France, killed in on 4 January 1910 flying Bleriot XI when a wing failed. [9]
  • John Domenjoz (1886–1952) - Performed aerobatics in South, Central and North America in 1914–1918. His Gnome rotary-powered Blériot-XI is displayed at the National Air & Space Museum, Washington.[10][11]
  • Eugene Gilbert - 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 Paris-Madrid Air Race of 1911 he and his Blériot XI were attacked by a large eagle, which Gilbert drove off by firing a pistol.[12]
  • Tryggve Gran - Norwegian aviator, first to cross the North Sea from Scotland to Norway in 1914.[13]
  • Gustav Hamel - Flew the world's first regular airmail service between Hendon and Windsor in September 1911.[14]
  • Vasily Kamensky - a famous Russian Futurist poet, one of the pioneering aviators of Russia.[15]
  • Jan Kašpar - Czech aviator, first person to fly in Czech lands on 16 April 1910.[16]
  • Alfred Leblanc - Broke the flight airspeed record in 1910 while flying a Blériot XI. His speed was calculated at 68.20 mph (109.8 km/h).[17]
  • Jan Olieslagers(1883–1942) - Lieutenant in the Belgian Army during the First World War.[18]
  • Earle Ovington - First airmail pilot in the United States.[19]
  • Adolphe Pégoud - First man to demonstrate the full aerobatic potential of the Blériot XI, flying a loop with it in 1913. Together with John Domenjoz and Edmond Perreyon, he successfully created what is considered the first air show. [20]
  • Harriet Quimby - First licensed female pilot in the United States; first female to fly the English Channel solo.[21]
  • Rene Simon (1885-192?) - In February 1911, the Mexican government engaged Rene Simon, a member of an aerial circus touring the southwestern United States, to reconnoiter rebel positions near the border city of Juarez.[22]
  • Emile Taddéoli - 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. [23]

[edit] Variants

Blériot XI Militaire
Military single-seater, powered by a 50 hp (37 kW) Gnome engine.
Blériot XI Artillerie
Very similar to the Militaire version, but with a fuselage divided into two sections so that it could be folded for transport.
Blériot XI-2
Standard tandem 2-seat touring, reconnaissance, training model, powered by a 70 hp (52 kW) Gnome 7B rotary piston engine.
Blériot XI-2 bis "côté-à-côté"
Larger, 2-seat model, with side-by-side seating.
Blériot XI-2 Hydroaeroplane
Mounted on floats (2 Main and 1 Tail), 80 hp (60 kW) with side-by side seating with a larger wing area and fully enclosed fuselage.[24]
Blériot XI-2 Artillerie
Military 2-seat model, powered by a 70 hp (52 kW) Gnome rotary piston engine;Blériot XI-2 Génie
Military version, designed for easy transport, it could be broken down/reassembled in 25 minutes.
Blériot XI-2 BG
Two-seat high-wing parasol model.
Blériot XI-3
Tandem 3-seat model, powered by a twin-row 14-cylinder, 140 hp (100 kW) Gnome Double Lambda rotary engine.
Bleriot XI E1
Single-seat training version.
Blériot XI R1 Pinguin
Rouleur or ground training aircraft, fitted with clipped wings and a wide-track undercarriage with a pair of forward-projecting skids to prevent nose-overs. Some examples were fitted with a 35 hp (26 kW) Anzani engine and others with old 50 hp (37 kW) Gnome engines that were no longer producing their full power output.

[edit] Military operators

 Argentina
 Australia
 Belgium
 Bolivia
 Bulgaria
 Chile
 Denmark
 France
 Greece
 Guatemala
 Italy
 Japan
 Mexico
 Norway
One only Tryggve Gran´s
 New Zealand
New Zealand Army - Royal New Zealand Air Force. One aircraft named "Brittania"; it was in service from 1913 to 1914.
 Romania
 Russia
 Serbia
 Sweden
 Switzerland
 Ottoman Empire
 United Kingdom

 Uruguay

[edit] Survivors

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.

[edit] Airworthy aircraft

Maiden public flight by a Blériot XI, manufactured 1918 under license by Thulinverken in Landskrona, Sweden as type Thulin A. Photo: Bengt Oberger.
  • A 1909-built Blériot XI, with British civil registration G-AANG, is on display at the Shuttleworth Collection, Old Warden, England. It is the world's oldest airworthy aircraft, powered by a three-cylinder "W form" Anzani engine, identical to Blériot's original cross-Channel aircraft engine.
  • A restored and flyable Bleriot XI, powered by a 120°-angle regular "radial" Anzani three-cylinder engine and identified by factory serial number 56 and bearing US civil registration N60094, is at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome (ORA). It is believed to have been built only three weeks after the Shuttleworth example, and is the oldest known flyable aircraft in the Western Hemisphere.
  • A Blériot XI, the oldest airworthy 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 of Science and Technology in Stockholm, Sweden since 1928. Following a two-year restoration by Mikael Carlson, the Blériot XI made its first 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. At the Stockholm Festival of Flight, the Blériot took off and landed no less than six times from a grass strip at The Royal Park, and was finally rolled 200 meters back to the Museum Exhibition Hall.

[edit] Display aircraft

[edit] Specifications (Blériot XI)

Aero-stub img.svg This aircraft article is missing some (or all) of its specifications. If you have a source, you can help Wikipedia by adding them.

Data from {name of first source}

General characteristics

  • Crew: one, pilot
  • 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 ft²)
  • Empty weight: 230 kg (507 lb)
  • Powerplant: 1 × Anzani 3-cylinder fan-type, or 120° cylinder angle "true radial"., 16–19 kW (22–25 hp)
  • * Propeller: Chauvière Intégrale
    • Diameter: 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in)
    • Thrust: 105 kgf (1,030 N; 230 lbf) @ 1,450 rpm

Performance

[edit] References

Notes
  1. ^ "The Wider View: 100 years after Bleriot first flew across the Channel, an identical plane repeats the feat (but not before the French had blocked the first attempt)." The Daily Express, 26 July 2009. Retrieved: 8 January 2012.
  2. ^ Gibbs-Smith 2003, p. 150.
  3. ^ Cooper, Ralph. "Alessandro Ambogio Anzani 1877-1956 ." earlyaviators.com. Retrieved: 8 January 2012.
  4. ^ "Bleriot XI." Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional. Retrieved: 17 July 2010.
  5. ^ "Otto Britschgi." AeroRevue via azimut270.ch, October 2007. Retrieved: 14 January 2012.
  6. ^ Mulder, Rob. "Timeline of Civil Aviation in Norway." europeanairlines.no, 6 January 2011. Retrieved: 14 January 2012.
  7. ^ Warth, John. "Adventurers of the Air". smithsonianeducation.org. Retrieved: 16 January 2012.
  8. ^ "Flying the Irish Channel." Flight Magazine, Volume IV, Issue 17, p. 379. Retrieved: 16 January 2012.
  9. ^ "Aero Club of France: Leon Delagrange." Flight magazine, 4 February 1911, p. 88. Retrieved: 16 January 2012.
  10. ^ "John Domenjoz, 1886-1952: le roi de la voltige aérienne entre 1913 et 1920 vidéo" (in French). Pionnair-ge.com.. Retrieved: 17 July 2010.
  11. ^ Cooper, Ralph. "John Domenjoz." earlyaviators.com, 2010. Retrieved: 29 October 2010.
  12. ^ Cooper, Ralph. "Eugene Gilbert." EarlyAviators.com. Retrieved: 8 January 2012.
  13. ^ "Tryggve Herman Gran" (in Norwegian). Store norske leksikon. Retrieved: 8 January 2012.
  14. ^ "The First Aerial Post: Hendon to Windsor & Windsor to Hendon." Thamesweb. Retrieved: 8 January 2012.
  15. ^ "Vasily Kamensky." russia-ic.com. Retrieved: 8 January 2012.
  16. ^ Horáková, Pavla. "First Czech aviator Jan Kaspar died 75 years ago." Czech Radio, 1 February 2002. Retrieved: 8 January 2012.
  17. ^ Cooper, Ralph. "Alfred Leblanc." EarlyAviators.com. Retrieved: 8 January 2012.
  18. ^ "Jan Olieslagers." The Aerodrome, 2011. Retrieved: 8 January 2012.
  19. ^ "E. L. Ovington Dies. First Mail Pilot. Flew the Initial Consignment From Garden City Estates to Mineola, L. I., in 1911. From Garden City Estates to Mineola, L. I., in 1911. Covered Ten-mile Route. Studied at Bleriot School at Pau, France. Owned Air Terminal at Santa [Barbara."] The New York Times, 23 July 1936. Retrieved: 8 January 2012.
  20. ^ "Adolphe Pégoud." The Aerodrome, 2011. Retrieved: 8 January 2012.
  21. ^ Koontz, Giacinta Bradley. "Harriet Quimby." harrietquimby.org, 2010. Retrieved: 17 July 2010.
  22. ^ Villard 2002, p. 116.
  23. ^ "Emile Taddéoli." AeroRevue via azimut270.ch, October 2007. Retrieved: 14 January 2012.
  24. ^ Aero and Hydro, 1 February 1913.
  25. ^ "Museo Nacional de Aeronáutica (in Spanish)." museonacionaldeaeronauticamoron, 16 February 2011. Retrieved: 15 January 2012.
  26. ^ "Blériot XI." National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian. Retrieved: 15 January 2012.
  27. ^ "Blériot XI Aircraft History - Pre-World War One Aircraft." RAF Museum, 2010. Retrieved: 15 January 2012.
  28. ^ Holcomb, Kevin. [1] Holcomb's Aerodrome. Retrieved: 15 January 2012.
  29. ^ "Blériot XI." Canada Aviation and Space Museum. Retrieved: 15 January 2012.
  30. ^ Stoff, Joshua. "The Bleriot #153 Comes to The Cradle of Aviation Museum." The Cradle of Aviation Museum. Retrieved: 15 January 2012.
  31. ^ Thompson, Stephen. "1914 Bleriot XI Monoplane." Migration Heritage Centre, 2011. Retrieved: 15 January 2012.
Bibliography
  • Charlson, Carl and Christian Cascio, directors. A Daring Flight (DVD). Boston: WGBH Boston Video, 2005.
  • Crouch, Tom D. Blériot XI: The Story of a Classic Aircraft. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1982. ISBN 978-0874743456.
  • Munson, Kenneth. Bombers, Patrol and Reconnaissance Aircraft 1914-1919 (Blandford Colour Series). London: Associate R.Ae.S., 1977. ISBN 0-71370-632-8.
  • Villard, Henry. Contact! The Story of the Early Aviators. Boston: Dover Publications, 2002. ISBN 978-0486423272.
  • Vivien, F. Louis. "Description détaillée du monoplan Blériot" (in French). Paris: librairie des Sciences aéronautiques, 1905. (Original 1911 AVIA book French book with Blériot XI characteristics and specifications).

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