The Birth of Flight - Page 6

	The Channel Flight Bleriot – 1909				Close-up view of airplane, with seats for pilot and passenger – 1911

Aviation research and experimentation was also very intense in France during the late 1800s and early 1900s. In a marketing ploy to increase its circulation, the Daily Mail newspaper of London offered a cash prize to the first pilot to fly across the English Channel. This was a very risky proposition at the time. A young mechanical engineer in Paris named Louis Bleriot sensed this was a perfect opportunity. Bleriot had been devoting his time to building an aeroplane. Even though his plane had never run for more than 20 minutes (the equivalent of only about half of the Channel’s 22 mile distance), Bleriot was optimistic.

At dawn on July 25, 1909, he took off for England despite blustery winds and an injured foot. With no compass to guide him, Bleriot beat all of the odds and was the first person to fly across the Channel. He traveled just over 40 miles per hour, at an altitude of about 25,000 feet. Thirty-six minutes after his departure, fighting dangerous cliff-side gusts, Bleriot put down his plane on English soil near Dover. While Bleriot’s flight was not the longest of its time, his achievement was nonetheless historic. His crossing captured the world’s attention and continued to popularize the field of aviation.