Country of origin:

France

Description:

Single-seat light aircraft

Power Plant:

One 37 kw (50 hp) Gnome seven-cylinder rotary piston engine

Specifications:

History:

The Bleriot XI first achieved fame on 25 July 1909 when the designer, a Frenchman, Louis Bleriot, flew a Bleriot XI across the English Channel. This was the first time the feat had been achieved and the aircraft was powered by a three-cylinder Anzani engine of 19 kw (25 hp). In 1910 he established a speed record of 125.05 km/h (77.67 mph) at Lanark, and in 1911 he won the Circuit d’Europe. His design was subsequently used in a number of French campaigns before the outbreak of World War I, and the Bleriot was one of the first aircraft to be employed on military operations. Records indicate by the end of 1911 more than 500 examples had been completed.

The Bleriot XI was a shoulder-wing monoplane externally braced by wire, with wing warping for lateral control. The fuselage was a wooden wire-braced box-girder, which was left uncovered from just behind the wings.

Several Bleriots were imported to Australia before World War I for civil purposes. A Frenchman, Maurice Guillaux, first demonstrated the aircraft in Sydney, NSW and Melbourne, VIC in April 1914, and flew the first Melbourne – Sydney airmail between 16 and 18 July 1914. In this aircraft he performed the first loop in Australia. The airmail flight from Melbourne to Sydney ended in a landing at Moore Park on 18 July 1914, the flight involving 7 refuelling stops.

Two other civil Bleriots, which had been imported by F Custance and G Cugnet of Adelaide, SA and Melbourne, VIC respectively, were both powered with the Anzani engine whereas Guillaux’s machine was fitted with a Gnome rotary engine. By the outbreak of World War I, five Bleriot XI aircraft were in Australia. One machine was taken on charge by the Australian Government on 15 September 1914, this being used at the Central Flying School at Point Cook, VIC for ground instruction throughout the war with the serial CFS-6.

Guillaux returned to France at the outbreak of World War I. His machine remained in Australia and was sold to Graham Carey of Ballarat, VIC who used it for demonstrations during the war years to aid the war effort. This machine was also used to transport the first official airmail between Adelaide and Gawler, SA, on 23 November 1917. It was later purchased by K J Claffey of Deniliquin, NSW in 1920. In 1939 it was obtained by the Department of Civil Aviation for a display at Mascot, NSW but this did not go ahead. In 1941 it was loaned to the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences in Sydney, this later becoming the Sydney Powerhouse Museum, where it has remained on display since.

Guillaux’s aircraft when built in France was fitted with a 37 kw (50 hp) seven-cylinder Gnome rotary engine, the aircraft being specially modified by the manufacturer to be able to give aerobatic displays, these changes including an increase in the wingspan and the upper cabane being raised. The aircraft was badly damaged at Ascot (near Mascot), NSW racecourse on 3 August 1914 and Guillaux was injured. The aircraft was partially restored by Mr M A Leech at the Sydney Technical College with the help of Air Force trainees. It was placed on display at the Royal Aero Club at Bankstown, NSW on 11 October 1947, and again in November 1949. Further restoration took place in 1964. It was eventually fully restored in 1980 before being placed on display at the Powerhouse Museum in 1988.

Well-known American itinerant showman aviator Arthur ‘Wizard’ Stone was the first pilot of an aeroplane over Brisbane, QLD, taking off from the Exhibition Grounds on 6 July 1912 in what was described as a Metz-Air Car, Bleriot Type, obtained from the United States. He flew demonstration flights all along Australia’s eastern seaboard, commencing at Rockhampton, QLD at a carnival at the grounds of the Agricultural Society, and at the Rockhampton Jockey Club where he raced against a car but on this occasion crashed on a nearby cricket ground. He demonstrated the machine at Bundaberg, QLD and it is recorded the aircraft suffered twelve crashes before reaching Bundaberg.

Mr Stone also made the first flight to the west of Sydney on 19 April 1912, flying over the Blue Mountains as far as Bathurst, NSW. It was at this time Australian aviator H J “Bert” Hinkler joined him as a mechanic. The last occasion he demonstrated the aircraft in Queensland was at Eagle Farm Racecourse where he raced against Brisbane driver, Arthur Hobbs, the latter in a Cadillac motor car. He later attended the First International Aviation Contest in Sydney at Surrey Park on 29 June 1912, the other competitor being western Sydney dentist William Hart in a Bristol Boxkite. Later Mr Stone proceeded to give exhibitions in Victoria and, with H J “Bert” Hinkler, went to New Zealand to give demonstrations.

A number of examples have operated in New Zealand over the years. The first was imported by James D Walsh, a showman, who intended to fly Cook Strait. The aircraft arriving on board the ‘SS Aorangi’ and was fitted with a 37 kw (50 hp) Roberts engine. The Cook Strait flight did not eventuate. This aircraft was powered by a 37 kw (50 hp) Roberts engine and was taken around the country show circuit, the engine being regularly operated inside a tent. Eventually the machine was sold by auction to the Canterbury Aviation Company at Sockburn and was broken up in about 1920.

In April 1913 in New Zealand, American racing-car driver Arthur ‘Wizard’ Stone (referred to above) flew his Bleriot from the Auckland Domain and on 24 April made two flights covering over 19 km (12 miles). This machine had a number of crashes during its time in New Zealand, one in particular at Napier in June 1913, and on each occasion H J “Bert” Hinkler rebuilt the machine.

In May 1913 the Imperial Air Fleet Committee presented the New Zealand Government with a Bleriot XI-2 fitted with a 60 kw (80 hp) engine. Named ‘Britannia’, this machine was flown by Joseph Joel Hammond (1886-1918), the first New Zealander to gain a Royal Aero Club Certificate in November 1910. It made only a few flights and in August 1914 was shipped back to England.

In January 1970 a replica of a Vickers 22 arrived in New Zealand and was subsequently placed on display at the Southward Museum. This machine was built for the movie ‘Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines’ and was basically a British-built copy of a Bleriot.

In Dunedin in early 1987 a replica of the 1913 Bleriot XI-2 ‘Britannia’ was completed and this was placed on display in the RNZAF Museum at Wigram near Christchurch.

Inb 2000 a Swedish-built Bleriot XI machine manufacturered under licence by AB Enoch Thulins Aeroplanfabric in 1918 at Landskrona and described as a Thulin A made a series of flights at the Wings Ovr Wanaka aviation event in the south island of New Zealand flown by Mickael Carlson.

A number of Bleriots reside in museums around the world. As noted above, one Bleriot XI is on display as part of collection of the Sydney Powerhouse Museum and a couple of replicas have been built for display purposes at other museums.

In Tasmania students of the Engineering Department at the Burnie Campus of the Tasmanian TAFE college in 2003 built a replica. It was fitted with a 1909 26 kw (35 hp) three-cylinder Anzani engine fitted with a Ferguson tractor carburettor. It had a weight of 194 kg (428 lb) andhad 66 cm (26 in) diameter wheels. It was demonstrated at a number of aviation events, including oneat Devonport, TAS on 9 February 2003. Its control was via an elevator and rudder but lateral control was from wing warping. It was displayed at the Australian International Air Show at Avalon, VIC in 2003 before being donated to the Queen Victoria Museum in Launceston, TAS. At that time a second replica was under construction and was offered for sale but its ultimate fate is not known.

In the United States a replica Bleriot XI has been built with an Australian-built Rotec R2800 radial engine.

Another replica was built in Queensland and displayed at a fly-in at Watts Bridge in mid 2010, this machine being registered VH-XIK (c/n 11K) to its owner Mr Collin Fearnside of Beachmere, QLD on 17 October 2013 and being occasionally flown.

Another was built and flown as 10-1909 under RAA Regulations in on 11 December 2002, this aircraft being fitted with a three-cylinder Anzani engine, but was retired in December 2004.

The Bleriot was built in a variety of models, most differing in the type of power-plant installed. It was seen in both single-seat, of which there were at least 12 variants, and two-seat models, of which there are known to have been seven, including one fitted with floats. It also saw some military service, particularly with the French Army, The Royal Navy Air Service, and the Italian Army, with which it was used in Libya.

Kit manufacturer Airdrome Aeroplanes in the United States has produced kits of the Bleriot XI for construction by amateur builders, it being available as a full size aircraft or to 75 per cent scale, and one of these has been built in New Zealand.