{"id":3776,"date":"2011-07-25T20:09:35","date_gmt":"2011-07-26T00:09:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/?p=3776"},"modified":"2011-07-26T09:30:04","modified_gmt":"2011-07-26T13:30:04","slug":"102-years-ago-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/?p=3776","title":{"rendered":"102 Years Ago Today"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Louis Bleriot \/ Wikipedia<\/p><\/div>\n

A little after four o\u2019clock in the morning this day 102 years ago, 30 year-old Louis Charles Joseph Bl\u00e9riot, an engineer and early French aviator, was nursing a badly burned foot.\u00a0 He and two other early pilots, Hubert Latham and Charles de Lambert, were analyzing the weather and other problems they faced for the first attempted crossing of the English Channel by an aircraft.<\/p>\n

Earlier when he was flying his #VIII machine in preparation for the crossing, a fuel line broke causing the fire.\u00a0 Regardless of his injury, Bl\u00e9riot\u00a0remained determined to fly across the English Channel. Bl\u00e9riot\u2019s #VIII aircraft\u00a0was his most successful design in addition to being his largest aircraft.\u00a0 With it damaged, his only choice was too quickly ready his #XI machine for the flight.<\/p>\n

Bl\u00e9riot\u00a0designed the Bl\u00e9riot\u00a0#XI as a structurally strong aircraft.\u00a0 It was a light and maneuverable monoplane powered by a 25-horsepower Anzani\u00a0engine.\u00a0 The little three-cylinder engine drove a fairly large, wooden fixed-pitch propeller.<\/p>\n

Bl\u00e9riot\u00a0manned his aircraft\u00a0and took off just after dawn a little after 4:30 in the morning.\u00a0 Latham had overslept and did not realize Bl\u00e9riot had departed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

This is the plane on which Bleriot crossed the Channel. Photographed at the Musee des Arts et Metiers. \/ PHGCOM via Wikipedia<\/p><\/div>\n

As Bl\u00e9riot climbed into the sky over the English Channel, he was flying an airplane whose engine could only develop 1200 rpm, flew just a bit over 40 miles per hour, and had no compass.<\/p>\n

Assuming Bl\u00e9riot took off from the beach at Calais, France and flew a straight line to Dover, England, the distance is 25 miles.\u00a0 His flight through fog and bad weather, took 36 and one-half minutes.\u00a0 This gives an average speed across the water of 41 miles per hour.<\/p>\n

When he arrived in Dover, Bl\u00e9riot\u00a0made a very rough landing.\u00a0 The landing gear collapsed and the propeller struck the ground snapping in two.\u00a0 The damage was so thorough the airplane would never fly again.\u00a0 After a few quick repairs, the airplane went on display in a department store.\u00a0 It would later go on permanent display at the Musee\u00a0des Arts et Metiers.<\/p>\n

Even though the airplane crashed on arriving at Dover, the simple fact that Bl\u00e9riot made across the Channel allowed him to collect the prize money offered by the Daily Mail<\/em>.\u00a0 It was the equivalent\u00a0to approximately $5000 by today\u2019s standards.<\/p>\n

Because of his success at crossing the Channel, Bl\u00e9riot\u00a0quickly gained fame as an aircraft designer and builder.\u00a0 He would go on to build and sell many of his #XI design.\u00a0 Indeed, by September 1909 Bl\u00e9riot had more than 100 orders for the airplane.<\/p>\n

Bl\u00e9riot\u00a0continued his work in aircraft design and construction.\u00a0 Leading up to World War I, he would become president of an aircraft company in trouble.\u00a0 The company was Soci\u00e9t\u00e9\u00a0pour les Appareils\u00a0Deperdussin, which he would later rename Soci\u00e9t\u00e9\u00a0Pour Aviation et ses\u00a0Derives (SPAD).<\/p>\n

SPAD\u00a0would go on to become a leader in the production of French combat aircraft.\u00a0 Additionally, France would export many of the aircraft to friendly countries.<\/p>\n

After the war, Bl\u00e9riot\u00a0formed his own company, Bl\u00e9riot-A\u00e9ronautique, for the production of commercial aircraft.\u00a0 He continued to work on other designs over the coming years.<\/p>\n

On August 2, 1936, Bl\u00e9riot died of a heart attack at the age of 64.<\/p>\n

-30-<\/p>\n

\u00a92011 J. Clark<\/em><\/p>\n

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Note: Email subscribers, please go to <\/em>my blog<\/em><\/a> to view vids and photos <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A little after four o\u2019clock in the morning this day 102 years ago, 30 year-old Louis Charles Joseph Bl\u00e9riot, an engineer and early French aviator, was nursing a badly burned foot.\u00a0 He and two other early pilots, Hubert Latham and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,6,7],"tags":[5002,5009,5012,5007,5008,5018,5010,5005,5006,5011,5004,5003,5017,5016,5013,5015,5014],"class_list":["post-3776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aviation","category-aviation-history","category-flying-2","category-history-2","tag-102-years-ago-today","tag-a-25-horsepower-anzani-engine","tag-a-very-rough-landing","tag-bleriot-viii","tag-bleriot-xi","tag-bleriot-aeronautique-aeronautique","tag-calais-france","tag-charles-de-lambert","tag-crossing-of-the-english-channel","tag-dover-england","tag-hubert-latham","tag-louis-charles-joseph-bleriot","tag-societe-pour-aviation-et-ses-derives-spad","tag-societe-pour-les-appareils-deperdussin","tag-the-airplane-would-never-fly-again","tag-the-daily-mail","tag-the-musee-des-arts-et-metiers"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3776"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3791,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3776\/revisions\/3791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}