Blériot XI

Blériot XI
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 in which, on 25 July 1909, Louis Blériot made 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 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".

Contents

Design and development

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 built the cabane mounted a small teardrop-shaped fin, 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 Bleriot made contact with Alexandre Anzani, a famous motor-cycle 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 fan or semi-radial configurations engine was fitted, driving a Chauvière two bladed propeller made from laminated walnut. 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.

Operational history

The 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. 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, Blériot awoke—albeit in a bad mood, reportedly due to having scorched his foot in a flying accident, allegedly from stepping on a hot exhaust manifold—to conditions fair enough to fly in. When Blériot took off, Latham's camp was still quiet; Latham had overslept. Fighting fog and bad weather, Blériot did not even have a compass to guide his crossing. It is said that the 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, he spotted a French reporter waving the French flag to mark the landing spot. Blériot made a very rough "pancake" landing during which the landing gear collapsed and the propeller snapped; but he walked away, winning the £1000 prize awarded by the Daily Mail. The aircraft itself – which never flew again – was hurriedly repaired and put on limited display at Selfridges Department Store in London.

Further development

After the successful crossing of the channel, there was a great demand for the Blériot XI. 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 machines. Some notable models in the "Type Onze" series:

authentic Blériot XI owned and flown by John Domenjoz in 1915; on exhibit at the Smithsonian
Detail of replica Bleriot XI wing, Hamburg Airport Days, 2007

Military use

The first Bleriot 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.[1] The Royal Flying Corps received its first Bleriots 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 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.

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.
  • Jorge Chavez - French-Peruvian aviator who crossed the Alps in 1910, but crashed on arrival and was killed.
  • Denys Corbett Wilson - Anglo-Irish aviator who made the first successful flight from Britain to Ireland in April 1912.
  • John Domenjoz (1886–1952) - Performed aerobatics in South, Central and North America in 1914–1918. His Gnome rotary-powered Bleriot-XI is displayed at the National Air & Space Museum, Washington.[2][3]
  • Tryggve Gran - Norwegian aviator, first to cross the North Sea from Scotland to Norway in 1914.
  • Gustav Hamel - Flew the world's first regular airmail service between Hendon and Windsor in September 1911.[4]
  • Jan Kašpar - Czech aviator, first person to fly in Czech lands on 16 April 1910.
  • 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).
  • Jan Olieslagers(1883–1942) - Lieutenant in the Belgian Army during the first world war.
  • Earle Ovington - First airmail pilot in the United States.
  • 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 assembled what is thought of as the first air show.
  • Harriet Quimby - First licensed female pilot in the United States. First female to fly the English Channel solo.[5]
  • Rene Simon (1885-192?) - In February 1911, the Mexican government engaged Rene Simon, a member of an aerial circus touring the south-western United States, to reconnoiter rebel positions near the border city of Juarez.[6]
  • 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.
  • Eugene Gilbert - to the Bleriot school in 1910 after having built his own small unsuccessful plane in 1909. During a flight across the Pyrenees Mountains in the Paris/Madrid Air Race of 1911 he and his Bleriot XI were attacked by a large eagle, with Gilbert escaping after firing pistol shots.

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.
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 with a larger wing area.
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.
Bleriot 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 a 50 hp (37 kW) Gnome.

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
  • Ottoman Aviation squadrons
 United Kingdom

 Uruguay

Survivors

Maiden public flight by a Blériot XI, manufactured 1918 under license by Thulinverken in Landskrona, Sweden as type Thulin A. The aircraft had never been flown, and has been owned by the Museum of Science and Technology in Stockholm since 1928. It was restored in 2009-2010 to celebrate the Centenary of Flight in Sweden in 2010. Flown at the Stockholm Festival of Flight, 20–22 August 2010, 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.
: Photo: Bengt Oberger

A flyable 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 airplane. Another restored and flyable Bleriot XI, with US civil registration N60094, exists at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome (ORA), believed to be only three weeks newer than the Shuttleworth example by date of manufacture, and the oldest known flyable aircraft in the Western Hemisphere. The ORA example was originally built at the Bleriot factory in France, marked with factory serial number 56. Both aircraft use three-cylinder Anzani engines, with the Shuttleworth example having a "W form" Anzani as Bleriot's original cross-Channel aircraft used, and with the Old Rhinebeck example using a 120º-angle regular "radial" Anzani three-cylinder engine.

A third flyable Blériot XI, manufactured in 1918 under licence by AETA, Enoch Thulins Aeroplane Works, in Landskrona, Sweden, is owned by The Museum of Science and Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. The aircraft was registered with the Swedish Civil Air Traffic Authority in 2010 as SE-AEC. Following a two-year restoration by Mikael Carlson, the Blériot XI made its first flight at the Stockholm Festival of Flight in August 2010. This made the aircraft the oldest airworthy craft in Sweden. The Blériot uses its original rotary engine, a Thulin-built copy of the Gnôme Omega.

Another survivor with replica wings has its home at the Museo Nacional de Aeronáutica in Morón, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is powered by a W 3 Cyl Anzani 25 hp engine. It is not airworthy.

A 3/4 scale historically accurate replica of the Bleriot XI is featured in the New York City premiere of FLIGHT, running March 23 - April 11, 2011 at the Connelly Theatre. A tour of the production through southern states will commence in the fall of 2011.

Specifications (Blériot XI)

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

References

Notes
  1. ^ "Bleriot XI." Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional. Retrieved: 17 July 2010.
  2. ^ "John Domenjoz, 1886-1952: le roi de la voltige aérienne entre 1913 et 1920 vidéo" (in French). Pionnair-ge.com.. Retrieved: 17 July 2010.
  3. ^ "John Domenjoz." earlyaviators.com. Retrieved: 29 October 2010.
  4. ^ "The First Aerial Post: Hendon to Windsor & Windsor to Hendon". Thamesweb. web. http://www.thamesweb.co.uk/aviation/aerialpost.html. 
  5. ^ "Harriet Quimby." harrietquimby.org. Retrieved: 17 July 2010.
  6. ^ Villard 2002, p. 116.
Bibliography
  • "Bleriot XI."Chasing the Sun. via PBS, 2001.
  • Charlson, Carl, Director. 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.
  • XI "Description détaillée du monoplan Blériot" 1911 AVIA book (Original French book with Blériot XI characteristics and specifications)
  • 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.

External links


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