Louis Charles Joseph Blériot (/ˈblɛrioʊ/BLERR-ee-oh,[3][4]alsoUS:/ˈbleɪrioʊ,ˌbleɪriˈoʊ,blɛərˈjoʊ/BLAY-ree-oh, -OH, blair-YOH,[5][6][7]French:[lwiʃaʁlʒozɛfbleʁjo]; 1 July 1872 – 1 August 1936) was a Frenchaviator,inventor, andengineer. He developed the first practical headlamp for cars and established a profitable business manufacturing them, using much of the money he made to finance his attempts to build a successful aircraft. Blériot was the first to use the combination of hand-operated joystick and foot-operated rudder control as used to the present day to operate theaircraft control surfaces.[8] Blériot was also the first to make a working, powered, pilotedmonoplane.[9] In 1909 he became world-famous for making the first aeroplane flight across the English Channel, winning the prize of £1,000 (worth £152,113 in 2025) offered by theDaily Mail newspaper.[10][Note 1] He was the founder ofBlériot Aéronautique, a successful aircraft manufacturing company.
Born at No.17h rue de l'Arbre à Poires (now rue Sadi-Carnot) inCambrai,[11] Louis was the first of five children born to Clémence and Charles Blériot. In 1882, aged 10, Blériot was sent as aboarder to the Institut Notre Dame in Cambrai, where he frequently won class prizes, including one for engineering drawing. When he was 15, he moved on to thelycée atAmiens, where he lived with an aunt. After passing the exams for hisbaccalaureate in science and German, he determined to try to enter the prestigiousÉcole Centrale in Paris. Entrance was by a demanding exam for which special tuition was necessary: consequently Blériot spent a year at theCollège Sainte-Barbe inParis. He passed the exam, placing 74th among the 243 successful candidates, and doing especially well in the tests of engineering drawing ability. After three years of demanding study at the École Centrale, Blériot graduated 113th of 203 in his graduating class. He then embarked on a term of compulsory military service, and spent a year as a sub-lieutenant in the 24th Artillery Regiment, stationed inTarbes in thePyrenees.
Share of the Etablissements L. Blériot, issued 27 September 1905
He later got a job withBaguès, an electrical engineering company in Paris.[12] He left the company after developing the world's first practical headlamp for automobiles, using a compact integralacetylene generator. In 1897, Blériot opened a showroom for headlamps at 41 rue de Richlieu in Paris. The business was successful, and soon he was supplying his lamps to bothRenault andPanhard-Levassor, two of the foremost automobile manufacturers of the day.[13]
In October 1900 Blériot was lunching in his usual restaurant near his showroom when his eye was caught by a young woman dining with her parents. That evening, he told his mother "I saw a young woman today. I will marry her, or I will marry no one."[14] A bribe to a waiter secured her identity; she was Alice Védères, the daughter of a retired army officer. Blériot set about courting her with the same determination that he later brought to his aviation experiments, and on 21 February 1901 the couple were married.[15]
Blériot had become interested in aviation while at the Ecole Centrale, but his serious experimentation was probably sparked by seeingClément Ader'sAvion III at the1900 Exposition Universelle.[16] By then his headlamp business was doing well enough for Blériot to be able to devote both time and money to experimentation. His first experiments were with a series ofornithopters, which were unsuccessful. In April 1905, Blériot metGabriel Voisin, who was then employed byErnest Archdeacon to assist with his experimental gliders.
Blériot was a spectator at Voisin's first trials of the floatplane glider he had built on 8 June 1905. Cine photography was among Blériot's hobbies, and the film footage of this flight was shot by him. The success of these trials prompted him to commission a similar machine from Voisin, theBlériot II glider. On 18 July an attempt to fly this aircraft was made, ending in a crash in which Voisin nearly drowned, but this did not deter Blériot. Indeed, he suggested that Voisin should stop working for Archdeacon and enter into partnership with him. Voisin accepted the proposal, and together with his brotherCharles Voisin andÉdouard Surcouf they established theAteliers d' Aviation Edouard Surcouf, Blériot et Voisin, possibly the world's first aircraft manufacturing company.[17] Active between 1905 and 1906, the company built two unsuccessful powered aircraft, theBlériot III and the Blériot IV, which was largely a rebuild of its predecessor.[18] Both these aircraft were powered with the lightweightAntoinette engines being developed byLéon Levavasseur. Blériot became a shareholder in the company, and in May 1906, joined the board of directors.[19]
The Blériot V canard monoplane, built in January 1907
The Blériot IV was damaged in a taxiing accident at Bagatelle on 12 November 1906. The disappointment of the failure of his aircraft was compounded by the success ofAlberto Santos Dumont later that day, when he managed to fly his14-bis a distance of 220 m (720 ft), winning the Aéro Club de France prize for the first flight of over 100 metres. This also took place at Bagatelle, and was witnessed by Blériot. The partnership with Voisin was dissolved and Blériot established his own business,Recherches Aéronautiques Louis Blériot, where he started creating his own aircraft, experimenting with various configurations[20] and eventually creating the world's first successful powered monoplane.
The first of these, thecanard configurationBlériot V, was first tried on 21 March 1907,[21] when Blériot limited his experiments to ground runs, which resulted in damage to the undercarriage. Two further ground trials, also damaging the aircraft, were undertaken, followed by another attempt on 5 April. The flight was only of around 6 m (20 ft), after which he cut his engine and landed, slightly damaging the undercarriage. More trials followed, the last on 19 April when, travelling at a speed of around 50 km/h (30 mph), the aircraft left the ground, Blériot over-responded when the nose began to rise, and the machine hit the ground nose-first, and somersaulted. The aircraft was largely destroyed, but Blériot was, by great good fortune, unhurt. The engine of the aircraft was immediately behind his seat, and he was very lucky not to have been crushed by it.
This was followed by theBlériot VI, atandem wing design, first tested on 7 July, when the aircraft failed to lift off. Blériot then enlarged the wings slightly, and on 11 July a short successful flight of around 25–30 metres (84–100 ft) was made, reaching an altitude of around 2 m (7 ft). This was Blériot's first truly successful flight. Further successful flights took place that month, and by 25 July he had managed a flight of 150 m (490 ft). On 6 August he managed to reach an altitude of 12 m (39 ft), but one of the blades of the propeller worked loose, resulting in a heavy landing which damaged the aircraft. He then fitted a 50 hp (37 kW) V-16 Antoinette engine. Tests on 17 September showed a startling improvement in performance: the aircraft quickly reached an altitude of 25 m (82 ft), when the engine suddenly cut out and the aircraft went into a spiralling nosedive. In desperation Blériot climbed out of his seat and threw himself towards the tail. The aircraft partially pulled out of the dive, and came to earth in a more or less horizontal attitude. His only injuries were some minor cuts on the face, caused by fragments of glass from his broken goggles. After this crash Blériot abandoned the aircraft, concentrating on his next machine.
This, theBlériot VII, was a monoplane with tail surfaces arranged in what has become, apart from its use of differentialelevators movement for lateral control, the modern conventional layout. This aircraft, which first flew on 16 November 1907, has been recognised as the first successful monoplane.[9][22] On 6 December Blériot managed two flights of over 500 metres, including a successful U-turn. This was the most impressive achievement to date of any of the French pioneer aviators, causingPatrick Alexander to write to MajorBaden Baden-Powell, president of the Royal Aeronautical Society, "I got back from Paris last night. I think Blériot with his new machine is leading the way". Two more successful flights were made on 18 December, but the undercarriage collapsed after the second flight; the aircraft overturned and was wrecked.
Blériot's next aircraft, theBlériot VIII was shown to the press in February 1908. Although it was the first to use of a successful combination of hand/arm-operated joystick and foot-operated rudder control, this was a failure in its first form. After modifications, it proved successful, and on 31 October 1908 he succeeded in making a cross-country flight, making a round trip fromToury toArteny and back, a total distance of 28 km (17 mi).[23] This was not the first cross-country flight by a narrow margin, sinceHenri Farman had flown fromBouy toRheims the preceding day. Four days later, the aircraft was destroyed in a taxiing accident.
The first Blériot XI in early 1909
Three of his aircraft were displayed at the first Paris Aero Salon, held at the end of December: theBlériot IX monoplane; theBlériot X, a three-seat pusher biplane; and theBlériot XI, which went on to be his most successful model. The first two of the designs, which used Antoinette engines, never flew, possibly because at this time, Blériot severed his connection with the Antoinette company because the company had begun to design and construct aircraft as well as engines, presenting Blériot with a conflict of interests. The Type XI was initially powered by aREP engine and was first flown with this engine on 18 January 1909,[24] but although the aircraft flew well, after a very short time in the air, the engine began to overheat, leading Blériot to get in touch withAlessandro Anzani, who had developed a successful motorcycle engine and had subsequently entered the aero-engine market. Importantly, Anzani was associated withLucien Chauvière, who had designed a sophisticated laminated walnut propeller. The combination of a reliable engine and an efficient propeller contributed greatly to the success of the Type XI.
This was shortly followed by theBlériot XII, a high-wing two-seater monoplane first flown on 21 May, and for a while Blériot concentrated on flying this machine, flying it with a passenger on 2 July, and on 12 July making the world's first flight with two passengers, one of whom was Santos Dumont.[25] A few days later thecrankshaft of theE.N.V. engine broke, and Blériot resumed trials of the Type XI. On 25 June he made a flight lasting 15 minutes and 30 seconds, his longest to date, and the following day increased this personal record to over 36 minutes. At the end of July he took part in an aviation meet at Douai, where he made a flight lasting over 47 minutes in the Type XII on 3 July: the following day he flew the Type XI for 50 minutes at another meet atPort-Aviation (often called "Juvisy Airfield") atViry-Châtillon, and on 13 July he made a cross-country flight of 41 km (25 mi) fromEtampes toOrléans. Blériot's determination is shown by the fact that during the flight at Douai made on 2 July part of theasbestos insulation worked loose from the exhaust pipe after 15 minutes in the air. After half an hour, one of his shoes had been burnt through and he was in considerable pain, but nevertheless continued his flight until engine failure ended the flight. Blériot sufferedthird-degree burns, and his injuries took over two months to heal.[26]
On 16 June 1909, Blériot and Voisin were jointly awarded the Prix Osiris,[27] awarded by theInstitut de France every three years to the Frenchman who had made the greatest contribution to science. Three days later, on 19 June, he informed theDaily Mail of his intention to make an attempt to win thethousand-pound prize offered by the paper for a successful crossing of theEnglish Channel in a heavier-than-air aircraft.
TheDaily Mail prize was first announced in October 1908, with a prize of £500 being offered for a flight made before the end of the year. When 1908 passed with no serious attempt being made, the offer was renewed for the year of 1909, with the prize money doubled to £1,000 (equivalent to £131,667 in 2023). Like some of the other prizes offered, it was widely seen as nothing more than a way to gain cheap publicity for the paper: the Paris newspaperLe Matin commenting that there was no chance of the prize being won.
Blériot, who intended to fly across the Channel in hisType XI monoplane, had three rivals for the prize, the most serious beingHubert Latham, a French national of English extraction flying anAntoinette IV monoplane. He was favoured by both the United Kingdom and France to win. The others wereCharles de Lambert, a Russianaristocrat with French ancestry, and one ofWilbur Wright's pupils, and Arthur Seymour, an Englishman who reputedly owned aVoisin biplane.[30] De Lambert got as far as establishing a base atWissant, near Calais, but Seymour did nothing beyond submitting his entry to theDaily Mail.Lord Northcliffe, who had befriended Wilbur Wright during his sensational 1908 public demonstrations in France, had offered the prize hoping that Wilbur would win. Wilbur wanted to make an attempt and cabled brother Orville in the United States. Orville, then recuperating from serious injuries sustained in a crash, replied telling him not to make the Channel attempt until he could come to France and assist. Also Wilbur had already amassed a fortune in prize money for altitude and duration flights and had secured sales contracts for the Wright Flyer with the French, Italians, British and Germans; his tour in Europe was essentially complete by the summer of 1909. Both brothers saw the Channel reward of only a thousand pounds as insignificant considering the dangers of the flight.[31]
Latham arrived inCalais in early July, and set up his base atSangatte in the semi-derelict buildings which had been constructed for an 1881 attempt to dig atunnel under the Channel. The event was the subject of great public interest; it was reported that there were 10,000 visitors at Calais and a similar crowd atDover. TheMarconi Company set up a special radio link for the occasion, with one station onCap Blanc Nez near Sangatte and the other on the roof of the Lord Warden Hotel in Dover.[32] The crowds were in for a wait: the weather was windy, and Latham did not make an attempt until 19 July, but 6 miles (9.7 km) from his destination his aircraft developed engine trouble and was forced to make the world's firstlanding of an aircraft on the sea. Latham was rescued by the French destroyerHarpon and taken back to France,[33] where he was met by the news that Blériot had entered the competition. Blériot, accompanied by two mechanics and his friendAlfred Leblanc, arrived in Calais on Wednesday 21 July and set up their base at a farm near the beach at Les Baraques, between Calais and Sangatte. The following day a replacement aircraft for Latham was delivered from the Antoinette factory. The wind was too strong for an attempted crossing on Friday and Saturday, but on Saturday evening it began to drop, raising hopes in both camps.
Leblanc went to bed at around midnight but was too keyed up to sleep well; at two o'clock, he was up, and judging that the weather was ideal woke Blériot who, unusually, was pessimistic and had to be persuaded to eat breakfast. His spirits revived, however, and by half past three, his wife Alice had boarded thedestroyerEscopette, which was to escort the flight.
At 4:15 am, 25 July, watched by an excited crowd, Blériot made a short trial flight in hisType XI, and then, on a signal that the sun had risen (the competition rules required a flight between sunrise and sunset), he took off at 4:41 to attempt the crossing.[34] Flying at approximately 45 mph (72 km/h) and analtitude of about 250 ft (76 m), he set off across the Channel. Not having acompass, Blériot took his course from theEscopette, which was heading for Dover, but he soon overtook the ship. The visibility deteriorated, and he later said, "for more than 10 minutes I was alone, isolated, lost in the midst of the immense sea, and I did not see anything on the horizon or a single ship".[35] The grey line of the English coast, however, came into sight on his left; the wind had increased, and had blown him to the east of his intended course. Altering course, he followed the line of the coast about a mile offshore until he spotted Charles Fontaine, the correspondent fromLe Matin waving a largeTricolour as a signal. Unlike Latham, Blériot had not visited Dover to find a suitable spot to land, and the choice had been made by Fontaine, who had selected ( on the advice of Frederick Duckham, an engineer in charge of Dover harbour works) a patch of gently sloping land called Northfall Meadow, close toDover Castle, on top of the cliffs. Once over land, Blériot circled twice to lose height, and cut his engine at an altitude of about 20 m (66 ft), making a heavy "pancake" landing due to the gusty wind conditions; the undercarriage was damaged and one blade of the propeller was shattered, but Blériot was unhurt. The flight had taken 36 minutes and 30 seconds.
News of his departure had been sent by radio to Dover, but it was generally expected that he would attempt to land on the beach to the west of the town. TheDaily Mail correspondent, realising that Blériot had landed near the castle, set off at speed in a motor car and took Blériot to the harbour, where he was reunited with his wife. The couple, surrounded by a cheering crowd and photographers, were then taken to the Lord Warden Hotel at the foot of the Admiralty Pier; Blériot had become a celebrity.
Blériot's success brought about an immediate transformation of the status ofRecherches Aéronautiques Louis Blériot. By the time of the Channel flight, he had spent at least 780,000 francs on his aviation experiments.[37] (To put this figure into context, one of Blériot's skilled mechanics was paid 250 francs a month.) Now this investment began to pay off: orders for copies of the Type XI quickly came, and by the end of the year, orders for over 100 aircraft had been received, each selling for 10,000 francs.
At the end of August, Blériot was one of the flyers at theGrande Semaine d'Aviation held at Reims, where he was narrowly beaten byGlenn Curtiss in the firstGordon Bennett Trophy. Blériot did, however, succeed in winning the prize for the fastest lap of the circuit, establishing a new world speed record for aircraft.
Blériot followed his flights at Reims with appearances at other aviation meetings inBrescia,Budapest,Bucharest in 1909 (making the first airplane flights in bothHungary andRomania). Up to this time he had had great good luck in walking away from accidents that had destroyed the aircraft, but his luck deserted him in December 1909 at an aviation meeting inIstanbul. Flying in gusty conditions to placate an impatient and restive crowd, he crashed on top of a house, breaking several ribs and suffering internal injuries: he was hospitalized for three weeks.[38]
Between 1909 and the outbreak ofWorld War I in 1914, Blériot produced about 900 aircraft, most of them variations of the Type XI model.[39] Blériot monoplanes andVoisin-type biplanes, with the latter'sFarman derivatives dominated the pre-war aviation market.[40] There were concerns about the safety of monoplanes in general, both in France and the UK. The French government grounded all monoplanes in the French Army from February 1912 after accidents to four Blériots, but lifted it after trials in May supported Blériot's analysis of the problem and led to a strengthening of thelanding wires. The brief but influential ban on the use of monoplanes by the Military Wing (though not the Naval Wing) in the UK was triggered by accidents to other manufacturer's aircraft; Blériots were not involved.[20]
Along with five other European aircraft builders, from 1910, Blériot was involved in a five-year legal struggle with theWright Brothers over the latter's wing warping patents. The Wrights' claim was dismissed in the French and the German courts.[41]
From 1913 or earlier,[42] Blériot's aviation activities were handled byBlériot Aéronautique, based atSuresnes, which continued to design and produce aircraft up to the nationalisation of most of the French aircraft industry in 1937, when it was absorbed intoSNCASO.[43][44]
BeforeWorld War I, Blériot had opened Britishflying schools atBrooklands, inSurrey and atHendonAerodrome.[45] Realising that a British company would have more chance to sell his models to the British government, in 1915, he set up the Blériot Manufacturing Aircraft Company Ltd. The hoped for orders did not follow, as the Blériot design was seen as outdated. Following an unresolved conflict over control of the company, it was wound up on 24 July 1916.[46] Even before the closure of this company Blériot was planning a new venture in the UK. Initially named Blériot and SPAD Ltd and based inAddlestone, it became theAir Navigation and Engineering Company (ANEC) in May 1918. ANEC survived in a difficult aviation climate until late 1926, producingBlériot-Whippet cars, the Blériot 500cc motorcycle,[47] as well as several light aircraft.[48]
In 1927, Blériot, long retired from flying, was present to welcomeCharles Lindbergh when he landed at Le Bourget field completing his transatlantic flight. The two men, separated in age by 30 years, had each made history by crossing significant bodies of water, and shared a photo opportunity in Paris.[49]
In 1930, Blériot himself instituted theBlériot Trophy, a one-time award which would be awarded to the first aircrew to sustain an average speed of over 2,000kilometers per hour (1,242.742miles per hour) over one half of an hour, an extremely ambitious and prophetic target in an era when the fastest aircraft were just breaking the 200 mph mark. The award was finally presented slightly more than three decades later by Alice Védères Blériot, widow of Louis Blériot, atParis, France, 27 May 1961, to the crew of theUnited States Air ForceConvair B-58A jet bomber, AF serial number 59-2451,The Firefly, crewed byAircraft CommanderMajor Elmer E. Murphy,Navigator Major Eugene Moses, andDefensive Systems OfficerFirst Lieutenant David F. Dickerson who on 10 May 1961, sustained an average speed of 2,095 kmph (1,302.07 mph) over 30 minutes and 43 seconds, covering a ground track of 1,077.3 kilometers (669.4 miles). This same crew and aircraft went on to set a number of other speed records before being lost in an accident shortly after takeoff from Paris, not long after setting yet another speed record, winning the Harmon Trophy for a record-setting flight betweenNew York City andParis, France. This flight was 3,626.46 miles in 3 hours, 19 minutes, 58 seconds, for an average of 1,089.36 mph. The Blériot Trophy winning crew took over the aircraft for the return flight, but were all killed when the pilot lost control shortly after takeoff from the Paris Air Show during some attempted impromptuaerobatics.The Blériot Trophy is astatuette in theclassical style sculpted of polished white and blackmarble stone, depicting a nude male figure of black marble emerging from stylized white marble clouds resembling female forms. It is now on permanent display at the McDermott Library of theUnited States Air Force Academy,Colorado Springs,Colorado, USA.[52]
In 1936 theFédération Aéronautique Internationale established the "Louis Blériot medal" in his honor. The medal may be awarded up to three times a year to record setters in speed, altitude and distance categories in light aircraft, and is still being awarded.[53]
On 25 July 2009, the centenary of the original Channel crossing, Frenchman Edmond Salis took off fromBlériot Beach in a replica of Bleriot's aircraft. He landed successfully in Kent at theDuke of York's Royal Military School.[55]
In 2006Rivendell Bicycle Works introduced a bicycle model named the "Blériot 650B" as a tribute to Blériot. It features his portrait on the seat tube.[58]
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