__NOTOC__ The Blériot Bl-115 was a French

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

airliner An airliner is a type of airplane for transporting passengers and air cargo. Such aircraft are most often operated by airlines. The modern and most common variant of the airliner is a long, tube shaped, and jet powered aircraft. The largest ...

of the 1920s, best remembered for the part it played in the French exploration of

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. For its day, it was a large aircraft, mounting one pair of

engines An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...

on the upper wing and one pair on the lower. First flying on 9 May

1923 In Greece, this year contained only 352 days as 13 days was skipped to achieve the calendrical switch from Julian to Gregorian Calendar. It happened there that Wednesday, 15 February ''(Julian Calendar)'' was followed by Thursday, 1 March ' ...

, the

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crashed on 23 June, killing its pilot, Jean Casale. A refined version of the aircraft, the 115-''bis'' was flown in June

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20–January 30, 30 – Kuomintang in Ch ...

Operational; history

The third and fourth machines built (christened '' Roland Garros'' and '' Jean Casale'') were used in Colonel Louis de Goÿs' attempts to create air routes to Africa. Commanded by Jean Dagnaux, the aviators departed France on 18 January

1925 Events January * January 1 – The Syrian Federation is officially dissolved, the State of Aleppo and the State of Damascus having been replaced by the State of Syria (1925–1930), State of Syria. * January 3 – Benito Mussolini m ...

, they arrived in Colomb-Béchar in Algeria, on 28 January. The expedition ended in disaster on 7 February 1925 in

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Niger Niger, officially the Republic of the Niger, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is a unitary state Geography of Niger#Political geography, bordered by Libya to the Libya–Niger border, north-east, Chad to the Chad–Niger border, east ...

when the ''Jean Casale'' crashed on take-off, killing its radio operator and seriously injuring both pilots, including Dagnaux. They had covered .

Variants

;Blériot Bl-115 :Four-engined airliner, powered by 4x Hispano-Suiza 8Ac engines. ;Blériot Bl-115bis :Improved version of the Blériot Bl-115, powered by 4x

Hispano-Suiza 8Ab The Hispano-Suiza 8 is a water-cooled V8 SOHC aero engine introduced by Hispano-Suiza in 1914 that went on to become the most commonly used liquid-cooled engine in the aircraft of the Entente Powers during the First World War. The original Hisp ...

engines. ;Bleriot Bl-103 :Projected bomber version. Not built.

Operational; history

Variants

Specifications (Bl-115)

References

Further reading