Discuss   Up to OJB's Aircraft List   Return to Previous Page

Bleriot XI

The Bleriot XI is the oldest aircraft I have seen flown at an air show. It Is most famous for completing the first flight across the English Channel on 25 July 1909. The Bleriot flown at the show was built In 1918 and rebuilt in the early 1990s.

Steering is through an interesting arrangement involving warping the wings (similar to the Wright Brothers' system) and the speed of the engine is controlled by flicking a switch which briefly stops the engine (it runs at one speed only).

The engine is a Gnome Rotary producing 50 hp which gives a top speed of 42 knots - I guess it must be one of the slowest and least powerful aircraft I have seen as well, an interesting comparison flying after the A4 which flies 10 to 20 times faster!

Use the controller above to watch the Bleriot "drift" past (this requires Quicktime, and is a moderately large movie). I apologise for the poor quality of this movie but it was originally encoded in the "early days" of internet video!

For many the Bleriot was the highlight of the show. This old machine seemed to have more character than anything else displayed. Its a historically significant aircraft because Louis Bleriot was the first to fly one across the English Channel from France to England on 25 July 1909. The journey of 24 miles took 36 minutes. This doesn't sound like much but in such a fragile machine, no instruments, and a primitive engine which was so badly built it constantly smeared the pilot with oil, it was really quite courageous! After this performance Bleriot received many orders for the machine which in some ways was considered very advanced for the time.

Here's the specs. Wing span: 28 ft 6 in, length: 25 ft 3 in, height: 8 ft 4 in. Weight: 700 lbs loaded. Engine: Anzani three-cylinder of 20 hp. Maximum speed: 45 mph. Note that the machine used in the Channel flight was a different version than the one shown.

I usually write a blog post about once a week. The latest post can be viewed here: Think for Yourself: In the end, everything is just an opinion. Be skeptical, and think for yourself! (posted 2026-04-25 at 21:12:02). Or go to the Home Page of My Blog to choose a post to view.

I do podcasts too! You can listen to my latest podcast, here: OJB's Podcast 2026-04-14 How Far is that Star?: How would we really know how big the universe is? Or subscribe to my podcast RSS feed, on my RSS Feeds page.

If you're not sure what to view from the thousands of pages on my site, here are some suggestions: My Latest Airshow Report (photos and movies from Warbirds Over Wanaka, 2026), My Favourite Wines and Beers (tasting notes for some of my favourites), An Interesting Astronomical Observation (learn a bit about astronomy from these observing notes), See Some Photos (A short rail journey through the Taieri Gorge), Read Some Mac Tips (Learn about how to use your Mac, and fix some problems).

Latest Site News and Notifications (Desktop): You are currently viewing OJB's web site, version 2.4 which has some major changes, and possibly errors! Please report any problems to ojb@mac.com.