1909 Bleriot XI details

[RichieW]

Dear all,

Here are some detail shots of an original 1909 Bleriot XI that is thought to be the world's oldest airworthy aircraft. I hope you enjoy them and find them useful.

_V5A7350 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

_V5A7347 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

_V5A7345 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

_V5A7344 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

_V5A7343 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

_V5A7341 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

_V5A7340 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

_V5A7338 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

_V5A7337 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

_V5A7329 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

_V5A7333 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

_V5A7328 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

_V5A7327 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

_V5A7323 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

_V5A7322 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

_V5A7321 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

_V5A7314 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

_V5A7309 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

_V5A7307 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

_V5A7298 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

_V5A7294 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

_V5A7290 by Richard Williams, on Flickr

I'm looking forward to seeing a master super detailer build one now!

Best wishes
Richie

[Bughunter]

Wow Richie, that is a big amount of beautiful details! Thanks for posting!

That will help one day, as I have an AJP kit of the Bleriot in the "Channel crossing version" with an additional fuel tank in my stash. It is a kit with PE, white metal parts and paper, same level as my Demoiselle and Deperdussin Monocoque.
The bad thing is that I have already to many running projects and not enough time. To build my stash completely I will need all the seven lives of a cat

Since this bird is too old for a Windsock Datafile I found another reference book, released by the National Air and Space Museum:
"Bleriot XI  The Story of a Classic Aircraft" by Tom D. Crouch
A lof of historic and newer restoration pictures, drawings and sketches. The best are 7 pages with the famous plans made by John Rozendaal, printed 1912 in a german journal "Der Motorwagen", could only be bigger printed. May be you know his Nieuport plans, which are printed in a Windsock. Same quality here.

Thanks again,
Frank

[Bughunter]

Richie, are there more of those Bleriots?
The book has in appendix D a list of existing aircraft, there are more in RAF Museum Hendon:
- serial #164, 1912 military machine, powered by 25hp Anzani
- a reproduction aircraft, built from spare and new parts, powered by an Anzani
- Bleriot XXVII, #433, powered by 50hp Gnome
On other places there are more machines in England.
Ok, the book is from 1982, may by some changes since then, e.g. exchanged for other types.

Cheers,
Frank

[RichieW]

Hi Frank,

Glad you like the photos, it's a beautiful aircraft. I wouldn't want to cross the Channel in one though! There are more in existence but as far as I know this is the only original one that is still airworthy.

I'm visiting the museum again tomorrow to get pictures of the Bristol Boxkite and Avro Triplane. They're never in a good position for photos but I'll see if I can talk my way past the barriers. I'm hoping they might let me get more close ups of their original SE5a too.

Richie

[RichieW]

Ah, just found my book, it's the same one you have 'The Sory of a Classic Aircraft'.

Thanks for the tip off about Rosendaal's drawings, I'm not familiar with his work so this will be of great interest. I'm hoping to get to the RAF museum in Hendon in a few weeks but they have so much there I will have to focus on a few exhibits. The last time I was there was as a 10 year old and just charged past everything in great excitement to get to the Spitfire. I'm ruling out that happening again!

Richie

[Bughunter]

 As a "door opener" to be let behind the barriers, I have already taken a few model details with me. Not a whole model, only some nice parts.
At first the jaw dropped and then I was allowed to take detail pictures and they showed me details, which can't be seen from the normal visitors perspective

Cheers,
Frank

[RichieW]

Now that is a very good idea. Sadly my model parts don't have the same jaw drop factor as yours!

[Rob Hart]

Thanks for treating us to the photos. Wouldn't a new tool kit of this beauty be nice?

[Bughunter]

The AJP kit is still available:
www.ajp-maquettes.com/maquettes-en-kit/collection-vieux-bois/bleriot-xi-manche.html

[RichieW]

As a "door opener" to be let behind the barriers, I have already taken a few model details with me. Not a whole model, only some nice parts.
At first the jaw dropped and then I was allowed to take detail pictures and they showed me details, which can't be seen from the normal visitors perspective

Cheers,
Frank

Well Frank, that worked a charm! I got good access to the SE5a and will add the photos later to the engine details thread.

[Alexis]

Thanks for sharing these photo's with us Richie . This will would an excellent scratchbuild ! Hmmmmmm


Alexis

[RichieW]

Thanks for sharing these photo's with us Richie . This will would an excellent scratchbuild ! Hmmmmmm


Alexis

Been thinking exactly that but I managed to get hold of the Sopwith Pup factory drawings and got to see a stripped Tripehound wing today....First World problems!

[Bughunter]

I think this matches this thread, so I will add the news here.

There is a german and french TV channel called "arte" and they created a documentation about the channel crossing, the pilot and the plane.
The film is 90min long and available in german and french language. It will be in TV next weekend but already available now in the mediathek.
https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/085379-000-A/mit-fliegender-kiste-ueber-den-kanal-louis-bleriot/

I don't know how long it is available, so view it soon.

Now I would like to start my kit!

Cheers,
Frank

[ColonelKrypton]

Very interesting photographs. They get the brain cells kicking over dreaming of another model build.

Unfortunately, the film that Frank posted a link to is not available for viewing in Canada.

For those so interested, here are a few links on Bleriot:

https://www.hydroretro.net/etudegh/12protosbleriot.pdf  - Les douze prototypes de Louis Bleriot

https://www.hydroretro.net/etudegh/moteurs_anzani.pdf  - same web site as the previous link  Les Moteurs Anazani

http://www.muzeumlotnictwa.pl/index.php/digitalizacja/katalog/364  - a document from Muzeum Lotnictwa Polskiego on Bleriot 1909, individual pages jpeg

https://repozytorium.biblos.pk.edu.pl/search?phrase=bleriot   - from Repozytorum Poltechniki Krakowskiej  a general search for Bleriot

https://repozytorium.biblos.pk.edu.pl/resources/38745   - from the search in the previous link a document les Aeroplanes Bleriot.

There is an original built in California that resides in the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum:  https://ingeniumcanada.org/aviation/artifact/bleriot-xi

It has been decades since I built a very rudimentary Bleriot, maybe it's time to build another but this time a bare bones one in a larger scale.

cheers, Graham

[Bughunter]

Unfortunately, the film that Frank posted a link to is not available for viewing in Canada.

Sorry Graham, I was not aware that they use geo blocking

Cheers,
Frank