1872-1936 (French Pilot's Licence No. 1)
Louis Charles Joseph Blériot was born on July
1st, 1872 in Cambrai in northern France, the son of an
entrepreneur who was at the time active in the textile
industry. He was educated at the prestigious École
Central in Paris and after his military service he
briefly joined an electrical company. After inventing an
acetylene lamp for cars he started his own company. He
made a fortune from selling lamps to big car
manufacturers, money that he could spend on flying
experiments.
He built his first unsuccessful ornithopter in 1899,
followed by several more or less unsuccessful types, some
of which were developed together with the Voisin
brothers. His first successful plane was the late 1907
Blériot VII, which more or less defined the layout of the
monoplane.
He made several pioneering flights, including the first
out-and-back cross-country flight in France in October
1908. His most famous flight was of course the 32-minute
flight across the English Channel on 25 July 1909.
Even though he showed well at Douai and set a world speed
record at Reims, his performances during the 1909 air
race meetings must be considered a disappointment in view
of his status. He had put much hope in the Blériot XII,
which eventually turned out to be a failure. The Blériot
XI was not yet fully developed. It was handicapped by its
Anzani engine and had neither the power nor the range to
challenge for the big prizes.
Blériot did very little flying after being seriously
injured in a crash in Istanbul in December 1909, but he
made a couple of short flights at the 1910 Biarritz and
Barcelona meetings. He then focussed on production of
airplanes. Blériot took over the remains of the
Deperdussin company in 1913 and during WW1 he was the
president of SPAD, which produced thousands of planes
during the war, the most famous being the "VII"
and "XIII" biplane fighters.
The Blériot and SPAD companies were never really
successful after the war, failing to get any large-scale
production contracts. Other industrial projects also hit
difficulties. These troubles took a heavy toll on
Blériot, who died in Paris August 1st, 1936 after a heart
attack.
When the first French "Brevets de Pilote" where
granted in 1910, Blériot received No. 1, based on the
alphabetic order between the first fourteen holders.
Louis Blériot participated in the following air race
meetings:
- Douai 1909
- Port-Aviation 4 July 1909
- Reims 1909
- Brescia 1909
- Berlin 1909
- Frankfurt 1909
- Biarritz 1910
- Barcelona 1910