View
of the Aerial Rally in Reims 1909, depicting one of the two new Bleriots (note
the altered rudder and undercarriage)Bleriot XI series production
Text: Henk van Hoorn
Louis Bleriot was not without means, that is,
before he came into touch with building and flying airplanes.
He owned a factory where carheadlights were produced and had faired well in the
process.
His passion for flying combined with the vast amount of crashes and the
corresponding need to build new machines became a real threat to his wealth.
By the time he put model #10 aside he was nearly bankrupt.
The story goes that his wife, when visiting an acquaintance, managed to save a
child's life when it fell from a balcony. The grateful parents, not without a
penny either, then financed the completion of the Channel Flyer and the
expedition to Calais.
The true profit of the successful crossing was not merely in the prize money but in an ever increasing number of orders for a Bleriot XI.
It cannot be ascertained as to whether series production was planned before the Channel crossing, but amazingly enough within a month 2 brandnew nrs. XI emerged to take part in the First Aerial Rally of august 22 through 29 in the year 1909 (I personally checked the starting lists)
View
of the Aerial Rally in Reims 1909, depicting one of the two new Bleriots (note
the altered rudder and undercarriage)
| Initially the
series model was available with either a 25 hp Anzani or a 35 hp Anzani |
|
 |
 |
Now Louis owned the largest airplane factory in the world and the headlight factory is no longer mentioned. A total of 700 planes were built all of the model XI in 16 different versions.
It is unknown what happened to
the drawings of the first series (1909). No one has been able to trace them.
Luckily in 1911 the German car magazine "Der Motorwagen" featured an
article on the Bleriot series production which included a comprehensive set of
extremely well detailed working drawings (with German captions)
Whether these drawings represented the original French drawings or that they
were competely redrawn by the author ing. Roosendaal is not known. This set of
drawings is for sale at the museum in Munich.
There still exist some specimen of the original Bleriot XI. Most of them are non-flying and are
kept in musea all over the world. However, some of them are still flying (or
performing the odd hop).
Beside those on La Ferte Alis, France (Salis) and Old
Rhinebeck, USA(Cole
Palen) there is a very fine example in the Shuttleworth Collection on
Old Warden in Engeland.
Apart from the original Bleriots there several replicas, and even just around the corner there is a very fine and well-flying specimen within the Early Birds Foundation. http://www.vroegevogels.org/ (the site 'speaks' English too)
In 1985 I started the construction of this plane and after some years, when the project threatened to overgrow me, this foundation adopted the project. Under the supervision of the Nederlandse Vereniging voor Amateur Vliegtuigbouwers (Dutch amateur airplane builders www.nvav.nl) a group of volunteers worked several years to finish it.
De
PH-BLE in flight on Lelystad airport