| Great Britain, always disconnected from the European | | | | throwing to the ground the crutches he had used to |
| continent because of its insularity, had only been | | | | help him walk after a prior flight fuel tank explosion |
| reachable by sea until 1785, at which time the first | | | | had burned his left foot. "If I cannot walk, I will show |
| balloon had successfully crossed the English Channel | | | | the world I can fly!" he had proclaimed. |
| by air. By 1908, 35 other aerial balloon crossings had | | | | The sun inched above Calais Castle. |
| been completed, but none had been made with | | | | After oil had been added to the aircraft's 25-hp |
| heavier-than-air craft. That had been about to | | | | engine and its 17-liter fuel tank had been topped off, |
| change, and the feat would fully equal the many epic, | | | | Anzani, maker of the powerplant which bore his |
| record-breaking flights now firmly impressed in the | | | | name, turned the wooden propeller and the five men |
| annals of aviation history, such as the transcontinental | | | | holding the tail down released it when Bleriot had |
| flight made by Calbraith Rogers in 1911 with the Vin | | | | commanded, "Let's go!" |
| Fiz Flyer and the solo transatlantic crossing by Charles | | | | Throttling into 1,200 revolutions-per-minute of power, |
| Lindbergh in 1927 with the Ryan Monoplane | | | | Bleriot accelerated his airplane over the grass toward |
| nicknamed Spirit of St. Louis. | | | | the sand and the open Channel, gateway to England |
| Sparked by the London Daily Mail's 500 British pound | | | | and aeronautical history, pulling back on the cloche |
| challenge issued on October 5, 1908, an amount later | | | | and separating its two still-spinning, bicycle-like wheels |
| doubled, the event had sought "the person who shall | | | | from French soil, as if they continued to ride some |
| succeed in flying across the English Channel from a | | | | invisible, aerial track. |
| point on English soil to a point on French soil, or | | | | Surmounting the telegraph wires, the aircraft climbed |
| vice-versa" in a heavier-than-air craft without | | | | to 180 feet, inching out over the water body which |
| stopping. | | | | had generated the challenge. Reducing power, it |
| Although Wilbur and Orville Wright had been | | | | leveled off at 260 feet and maintained a 43-mph |
| perceived as the only two capable of the feat, their | | | | airspeed. |
| involvement with aircraft sales-pursuing | | | | The French destroyer, Escopette, intended to |
| demonstrations had precluded their participation, | | | | provide flight following and carrying journalists and |
| despite a significantly increased prize offer, and | | | | Bleriot's wife, moved into view. Seeing the |
| Hubert Latham, who had spent two years in the | | | | propeller-pulled object in the sky amid the cylindrical |
| French Army and had already successfully crossed | | | | sun's ascent above the horizon, she yelled, "Mon Dieu! |
| the Channel in an aerial balloon, had been the first to | | | | There he is!" as her husband gracefully passed |
| accept the challenge. Having already earned a French | | | | overhead on fabric wings which had created a |
| duration record and a world record for monoplanes | | | | 260-foot-high aerial bridge between landmasses, |
| for the one-hour, seven-minute, 37-second flight in his | | | | creating the lift for which they had been designed. |
| Antoinette IV on June 5, 1909, he had intended to | | | | But the speed, one-and-a-half times greater than that |
| make the crossing with this aircraft, taking off from | | | | of the ship's lumbering 26, had rendered it a far |
| cliffs at Sangatte, a village six miles from Calais, | | | | superior opponent and it quickly overtook it. |
| where he had set up a rudimentary camp. French | | | | Attempting to make a wide circle in order to remain |
| destroyers and crane-equipped tugboats would follow | | | | in sight, Bleriot quickly realized that his aircraft had |
| his course. | | | | been demonstrating its intrinsic speed and distance |
| Count Charles de Lambert, a second contender and | | | | advantage over the water-plying vessel. Its intended |
| Wilbur Wright's first student pilot in France, intended | | | | directional aid toward England, alas, could not be used. |
| to make the journey with Wright aircraft, but of his | | | | Relaxing his grip on the cloche, Bleriot permitted the |
| two machines, one had been damaged during a test | | | | aircraft he himself had designed to find its own way |
| flight and the other had not been readied in time for | | | | across the water. |
| the event. | | | | Completely disconnected from soil and soul after ten |
| Latham had suffered a similar fate. Fighting strong | | | | minutes aloft, with neither coast ahead nor coast |
| winds during a July 13 crossing attempt, he had been | | | | behind visible, he felt "alone, unguided, without |
| forced to land in a corn patch, severing the right | | | | compass, in the air over the middle of the Channel." |
| strut and wheel of his aircraft, while a second | | | | The wind had begun to regain its strength. The 25-hp |
| attempt, six days later, had resulted in an engine | | | | Anzani engine, apparently overheating from its |
| failure-caused water landing near the French | | | | continuous-power output, suddenly sputtered and the |
| destroyer following him. The airplane, now too | | | | airplane nudged itself out of its artificial plateau |
| damaged for anything but a lengthy rebuild, had to | | | | toward the Channel's waves and whitecaps. Boring |
| be substituted by the Antoinette VII, although at | | | | through a rainsquall, whose pelting douse of cool |
| least a week had been needed to prepare it for | | | | water ironically nourished the power plant of its |
| flight. | | | | needs, the aircraft regained even, altitude-holding |
| It had been at this time that a third contender, Louis | | | | power. |
| Bleriot, had entered the race with his own design, the | | | | Wrestling with wind and fog, it fought its way to |
| Bleriot XI, a smaller, though not dissimilar aircraft to | | | | England. A long gray line, rising above the horizon and |
| the Antoinette. Incorporating several features already | | | | representing its destination, appeared ahead, but it |
| introduced by his earlier aircraft and therefore | | | | did not resemble Dover. The southwest wind had |
| representing the latest in a series of evolutions, it had | | | | diverted the frail bird to St. Margaret's Bay instead, |
| sported a primarily open, box-frame fuselage; a small | | | | yet the Dover Lighthouse, rising prominently in the |
| engine; fabric-covered, pylon-supported wings; | | | | west, had marked the location of the castle, and |
| wing-warping mechanisms; an open cockpit; the | | | | Bleriot banked left toward it, penetrating strong |
| cloche method of actuating both the wing-warping | | | | headwinds and paralleling the coast at a one-mile |
| and the elevators; and a tri-wheel undercarriage. | | | | distance. |
| The rounded-tip wings, with an 8.53-meter span, a | | | | Following the presumably harbor-approaching channel |
| 1.83-meter chord, a 4.65 aspect ratio, and a | | | | boats, Bleriot spotted reporter Charles Fontaine |
| 13.95-square-meter area, had been attached to the | | | | waiving the promised French tricolor to mark the |
| poplar fuselage, their trailing edges differentially | | | | entrance over Shakespeare Cliff of North Foreland |
| warped to induce in-flight banking. The 25-hp, | | | | Meadow, itself next to Dover Castle. |
| three-cylinder, V-shaped, air-cooled Anzani engine, | | | | Completing a half-circle above the Channel, Bleriot |
| replacing the original seven-cylinder REP semi-radial, | | | | initiated his approach to England-and history. |
| sported a 2.08-meter wooden propeller which | | | | Threading its way between the gap and passing over |
| produced 105 kilos of thrust at 1,450 | | | | land for the first time in more than half an hour, the |
| revolutions-per-minute. | | | | aircraft banked to avoid red buildings on its right, but |
| The horizontal tail, comprised of a fixed, center | | | | it had been clenched by the fist of low-level |
| section with elevating tips, had been built round a | | | | turbulence and winds, which had thrice spun it round, |
| steel tube bolted to the fuselage underside by cast | | | | rendering it uncontrollable. "At once, I stop my |
| aluminum fittings, while the rudder, positioned 13 | | | | motor," Bleriot had later stated, "and instantly my |
| inches behind it, extended above the fuselage. | | | | machine falls straight upon the land from a height of |
| The undercarriage had been comprised of two main, | | | | 65 feet. In two or three seconds, I am safe upon |
| fixed wheels which swung on links to cater to | | | | your shore," although the airplane's propeller and |
| cross-wind ground conditions and absorbed landing | | | | landing gear had sustained damage. |
| impacts by means of elastic springs, and a single, | | | | Latham, still asleep on the continent which Bleriot had |
| castering tail wheel. | | | | just bridged, did not fly at all that day and had to |
| First flying on January 23, 1909 at Issy, France, and | | | | accept defeat. Although he had made the attempt |
| covering a 200-meter distance, the Bleriot XI, with its | | | | two days later, he had once again plunged into the |
| characteristic forward bedstead frame built up of | | | | Channel when his engine had failed and he had |
| two ash horizontal beams, two vertical beams, and | | | | sustained injuries. |
| two vertical tubes to provide engine and landing gear | | | | Because of the historical event, the Bleriot XI, which |
| mounts, took to the air for a second time the | | | | had been offered in training, sport, military, and racing |
| following month on February 18, with a | | | | versions with varying dimensions, wingspans, engines, |
| two-square-meter larger wing. | | | | horsepower ratings, and capacities, had attracted |
| Louis Bleriot himself had set up his camp on a farm at | | | | over 800 worldwide sales, having been the most |
| Les Barraques so that he could use its flat pasture as | | | | massively produced pre-war monoplane. |
| a runway. | | | | Although the relatively short, 23-mile distance |
| On July 23, de Lambert became the third pilot to | | | | between Les Barraques in France and North Foreland |
| officially enter the race, but of the three, he had | | | | Meadow in England had been covered in 36½ |
| been impeded by his still-unprepared aircraft while the | | | | minutes, the flight's effects had been disproportionally |
| other two had been hindered by the weather. | | | | long. For England, geographically protected and |
| Diminishing winds and clearing skies on July 25, | | | | isolated by its surrounding Channel, its insularity had |
| however, indicated cross-Channel flight potential, and | | | | ended. For France, it had bred the designer, aircraft, |
| Bleriot, having already awakened early, warmed his | | | | and pilot which had triumphed over that Channel. And |
| engine by 0400, before making a 15-minute practice | | | | for the world, it had meant that the airplane, |
| circuit and relanding. | | | | increasingly able to connect countries and continents, |
| As the sun triumphed over night 35 minutes later, | | | | had paved the way toward unlimited future civil and |
| Bleriot prepared himself to triumph over flight, | | | | military application. |
| climbing into the fabric-covered monoplane and | | | | |