This model commemorates the first successful crossing of the English Channel in 1909 by Loius Charles Joseph Bleriot.

The model was made by Mr Eric G. "Buster" Noble and John K Newton to a Museum commission. The origin of the design for this model is unknown as it has some notable differences to the Cross Channel Bleriot.

The model was made by Messrs. Eric G "Buster" Noble and John K Newton operating under the trade name "Newble". Newton and Noble made models professionally for Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, New England Airways, C A Butler, RAAF, Nestles, MIlton Kent and Mobil as well as the museum.

Louis Charles Joseph Bleriot (1872-1936) was a French aviator, inventor and engineer. In 1909 he became world famous for making the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier than airacraft. The aeroplane, Bleriot IX, was a tractor configuration monoplane with a partially covered box girder fuselage built from ash wood with wire cross bracing. Wing warping was used for lateral control . The tailplane had a small balanced rudder,and a single rectangular horizontal tailplane with tip mounted elevators mounted under the longer longerons of the fuselage. The bracing and warping wires were attached to a cabane structure made of steel tubing above the fuselage, and an inverted pyramid, also made of steel tubing, below it. The undercarriage wheels were mounted in castering trailing arms which could slide up and down steel tubes. Bleriot IX was powered by a19 kW Anzani 3-cylinder engine with 1 2-blade fixed pitch laminated walnut wooden propeller.

Bleriot developed the world's first practical headlamp for automobiles using a compact integral acetylene generator., supplying both Renault and Panhard-Levassor, two of the leading automobile manufacturers of his time. With a successful business supporting him, he was able to devote both time and money to aviation, working first with ornithopters and later, gliders. Bleriot commissioned a floatplane glider, Bleriot 11, which crashed in the sea and nearly saw him drowned. In parnership with Gabriel Voisin, he built two powered aircraft, neither of which was successful. The parnership was dissolved in1906, with Bleriot continuing experimentation, until he designed and built the canard design Bleriot V, the first successful powered monoplane with a flight of 6 m. in 1907. He moved on to the Bleriot V11 monoplane, with tail surfaces arranged in what has become, apart from his use of a differential elevator movement for lateral control, the present day conventional tail assembly. The Bleriot V11 managed two flights over 500 metres, including a successful U-turn. This is recognised as the world's first successful practical powered monoplane flight.

In 1909, the Bleriot X1 was entered for a competition ,with a thousand pound prize, for the first heavier than air aeroplane to cross the English Channel. Two rival attempts failed, but on the 25th July 1909, Bleriot succeeded flying at an average airspeed of 64 kilometres per hour at an average altitude of 76 metres, with a flight time of 36.5 minutes. A rough landing severely damaged the landing gear along with the propellor, but Bleriot was unhurt.

Between 1909 and1914, Bleriot produced more than 800 aircraft, most of them being variations of the Type X1 model. During WW1, eight French, six British, and six Italian squadrons operated various military versions of Bleriot aeroplanes.

References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Bl%C3%A9riot

Bleriot XI monoplane powered by a 3-cylinder Anzani engine. Made from timber and wire. This model differs from the Cross Channel Bleriot XI in having a tail skid instead of a wheel. The rudder also has a straight leading edge rather than having the triangular projection as found on the Cross Channel aircraft. Differences are also to be noted in the number of fuselage bays formed by the longerons and montants. Painted olive green with silver engine and black tyres. Approximately 1:10 scale.

Made: Noble, Eric; ; 1933

Made: Newton, John; ; 1933

H3611

1933

940 mm

840 mm