Louis Blériot's first flight across the Channel recreated 100 years on
It was 100 years ago that Frenchman Louis Blériot became the first man to fly across the Channel.
The mustachioed aviation enthusiast and inventor was one of three pilots to respond to a public challenge to become the first man to achieve the feat.
The British newspaper magnate Lord Northcliffe had offered a prize of £1,000 to the first person to make the flight in either direction.
Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)
The mustachioed aviation enthusiast and inventor was one of three pilots to respond to a public challenge to become the first man to achieve the feat.
The British newspaper magnate Lord Northcliffe had offered a prize of £1,000 to the first person to make the flight in either direction.
But his two competitors – Hubert Lartham, a Franco-British sportsman, and Charles de Lambert, a Russian aristocrat– both failed leaving Mr Blériot, 37, to claim the title and the money.
On Saturday, an original "Blériot XI" aircraft will lead an armada of microlights across the 22 miles from Calais to Dover to mark the 100th anniversary of the occasion.