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Bleriot XI

Vickers 22

 

 

 

 

 

 

The flight was part of a 1,000 pound prize as put forth through a competition arranged by the London Daily Mail. Matching up against two other would-be winners, Louis Bleriot and his XI took to the skies on July 13th, 1909 and spanned some 36 minutes and 55 seconds, setting the new European endurance record with a distance of 36.6 kilometers from Les Barraques, France to Dover, England. One competitor, Hubert Latham was forced into the sea after developing engine troubles while a test flight for the third entrant, Charles de Lambert, ended in a crash with injuries sustained. Bleriot landed his XI and earn the 1,000 pound prize, though foul weather played a role in the rough landing that caused damage to the propeller and undercarriage. Nevertheless, Bleriot's legacy was sealed as "The Man Who Crossed the Channel".

 

 

 

Military service for the Bleriot XI began sometime in 1910 when the aircraft was accepted into the ranks of the French and Italian air services.

 

Operated by the RFC, and about 25 served with the RNAS, all were retired by early 1915, although some were used later by the Italians when they entered the war.

 

 

The Italian Army in Libya was among the first users. Major Morris had visited France in 1910 specially to buy two machines for the Italian Government which later ordered a further three.

 

One became the first aeroplane to be used in a war, when Capitano Piazza of Italy made a reconnaissance sortie over Turkish troops at Azizia on 22 October 1911. The first bombs to be dropped from an aeroplane were released from a Type XI on 1 November 1911. The British began operation of their Bleriot XIs in 1912. By the time of World War 1, the Bleriot still retained some military value and was thusly pressed into service in their two-seat forms serving primarily as observation and trainer aircraft. As technology naturally progressed during wartime, the need for Bleriots became less and less to the point that the system was fully relegated to the training role.

 

 

 

 

 

Bianchi had in 1960 created a one-off Vickers 22 (Blériot type) Monoplane at White Waltham, using Vickers company drawings intended for the Vickers Flying Club in 1910, a JAP J-99 engine and wing warping. Serialled PPS/REP/1 and first flying in 1960, the completed prototype was available and 20th Century Fox purchased the replica for the 1964 “Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines” film, though it required a new Continental A75 engine and modifications including replacing the wooden fuselage structure with welded steel tubing as well as incorporating ailerons instead of wing-warping. The Vickers 22 became the final type used by the Italian contestant. Sometime after the film, the Vickers was sold in New Zealand. It is believed to have flown once, at Wellington Airport in the hands of Keith Trillo, and is now at the SouthWard Museum.

 

Replica:
Fearnside Bleriot XI replica
Airdrome Airplanes Bleriot XI

 

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