Blériot XI

Blériot XI, monoplane built and first flown by the French aviation pioneer Louis Blériot in 1909.

Blériot took to the air with his model number XI for the first time at Issy-les-Moulineaux (near Paris) on Jan. 23, 1909. Principally designed by Raymond Saulnier, the Blériot XI was a tractor monoplane featuring wing warping for lateral control. (Tractor propellers face forward, thereby pulling the aircraft through the air. In contrast, pusher propellers face backward and push the aircraft through the air.) Blériot improved the initially disappointing performance of the aircraft by reducing the weight of the machine and replacing the original engine designed by Robert Esnault-Pelterie with a 3-cylinder, 25-horsepower, air-cooled Anzani engine that drove a two-bladed Chauvière propeller. Between May 27 and June 13, 1909, Blériot made a series of ever more impressive flights. He capped this early period of achievement on July 25, 1909, when he flew 37.8 km (23.5 miles) across the English Channel.

More than any other event in the early history of flight, this epic flight from Calais, France, to Dover, Eng., underscored the potential of the airplane as both a strategic weapon capable of carrying war to the enemy heartland and as a vehicle of commerce capable of binding countries together. European and Asian countries equipped their embryonic military air units with the famous monoplane, and pilots in Europe and the United States purchased Blériot machines to enter aeronautical competitions and to meet exhibition dates. Blériot emerged as one of the leading first-generation manufacturers of aircraft, and he arranged for the production of additional machines under license in Europe and the United States.