Biography of Louis Blériot

Pioneering projects for the conquest of the skies

1 July 1872 2 September 1936 aeronautical company founder of the now disappeared, Louis Blériot was born in Cambrai on day 1 July 1872. It's a character known in the aviation environment, it can be said that it is the first aviation pioneer in Europe. Towards the thirty years begins to take an interest in planes. The first flight takes place with a construction vehicle, in 1907. On July 25, 1909, accomplishes the feat of flying over the English channel on board an aircraft built by himself, called Bleriot XI, equipped with an engine prepared by the Italian Alessandro Anzani. Bleriot moves to 100 metres above sea level in just 32 minutes, from Calais to Dover. The flight across the English channel to win the French Aviator a substantial award of £ 1,000, raffled off for the performance of the company, really bold for the time, by the London newspaper "Daily Mail". Bleriot rivals fail to overcome it: Hubert Lathan and Charles de Lambert. The latter is forced to withdraw from the race due to an accident during a test flight. Bleriot resumes in the same path that the 7 January 1875 the pilot Jean Pierre Blanchard had done, flying over the English Channel aboard a dirigible. After graduating in engineering from Ecole Centrale Paris, he obtained his pilot license (the first released in French nation) in 1909; Louis Bleriot develops the technique still valid for flying a glider and refines that of the Wright brothers, for the guidance of the biplane. Also, while studying the solution of biplane, built the first plane equipped with autonomous systems for takeoff and landing. The Wright brothers, in fact, had not thought of a special cart or the Catapult and the binaries needed for takeoff. The structure created by Louis Blériot is that of modern aircraft, and provides for the placement of rudders and moving at the rear of the aircraft. In 1929 the channel with the same aircraft used glossed over twenty years earlier. After this second venture, the French Aviator creates a company specialized in building airplanes, one based in France and another in England. In particular, the Bleriot Aeronautique gives a great impetus to the development of the aviation industry in the two European countries during the first world war. During this period the company builds the fighter aircraft SPAD, which is used by all allies. The quality and performance of aircraft produced by Bleriot are known worldwide. In addition, become an expert master of flight, opening some schools specializing in aviation, especially in England. The dream of flying in the sky, that's starting to materialize with balloon invented by the Montgolfier brothers, becomes reality when Bleriot, a century later, can figure out how you can fly a plane. Louis Blériot dies in Paris on August 2, 1936, at the age of 64 years.

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