100 years ago today

[Anaxogoras]

Louis Bleriot crossed the English Channel in his monoplane!  He broke his undercarriage and busted his prop on the landing, but made it through some bad weather and the notorious reliability problems of early aircraft engines.

[Masherbrum]

 

[Shuffler]

Amazingly brave and adventurous souls in our past.

[PFactorDave]

I wonder if he used his moustache as a control surface.  Ailerons perhaps.   

[Xasthur]

I wonder if he used his moustache as a control surface.  Ailerons perhaps.   

I was going to say a deployable speed brake.... but I'm not sure that excessive speed would have been a serious problem. 

[Larry]

and busted his prop on the landing,

Good thing he had a replacement on his upper lip. 




But really, great achievement that took some balls.

[Getback]

But really, great achievement that took some balls.

That's what I was thinking!

[TonyJoey]

Great achievement!  

[CyranoAH]

And he did it in a Blériot XI. You can imagine what happened to the previous 10 models

Here's one of them in a recent airshow:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_OiTTfXjlg

Daniel