The Blériot VI "Libellule" ("Dragonfly"), was built in 1907 and was one of the series of experimental aircraft built by
Louis Blériot
Louis Charles Joseph Blériot ( , also , ; 1 July 1872 – 1 August 1936) was a French aviator, inventor, and engineer. He developed the first practical headlamp for cars and established a profitable business manufacturing them, using much of t ...
which eventually led to the
Blériot XI
The Blériot XI is a French aircraft from the Aviation in the pioneer era, pioneer era of aviation. The first example was used by Louis Blériot to make the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air aircraft, on 25 July 1909. ...
aircraft in which he made the first flight across the
English Channel
The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...
.
Design and development
Abandoning the
canard layout of the
Blériot V, Blériot and his chief engineer
Louis Peyret
Louis may refer to:
People
* Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name
* Louis (surname)
* Louis (singer), Serbian singer
Other uses
* Louis (coin), a French coin
* HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy
See also
* ...
next built a
tandem wing
QAC Quickie Q2
A tandem wing is a wing configuration in which a flying craft or animal has two or more sets of wings set one behind another. All the wings contribute to lift.
The tandem wing is distinct from the biplane in which the wings are ...
configuration aircraft, possibly influenced by the
Langley ''Aerodrome''. In its initial form the aircraft had two pairs of identical wings rigged with pronounced
dihedral mounted on the lower
longerons at each end of the wooden box-girder fuselage, with small tip -mounted elevators on the front wings. Triangular fins were mounted above and below the rear fuselage, with a small rudder hinged to their trailing edge. The undercarriage consisted of a pair of wheels on V-struts at the front of the aircraft and a third wheel mounted slightly behind the midpoint of the fuselage. It was powered by a 24 hp (18 kW)
Antoinette V-8 engine.
First trials were made at Issy-les-Moulineaux on 7 July but the aircraft failed to lift off. Blériot then enlarged the wings slightly, and on 11 July a short successful flight of around 25–30 metres (84–100 ft) was made, reaching an altitude of around 2 m (7 ft). Because some onlookers were in the way Blériot then shut off the engine and landed. Although the achievement was marred by slight damage to the undercarriage, this was Blériot's first truly successful flight. Further successful flights took place that month, and by 25 July he had managed a flight of . During these flights Blériot made various modifications: he locked the wingtip ailerons and installed a sliding seat, so that he could maintain longitudinal trim by shifting the aircraft's
centre of gravity, and extended the vertical tail surface. On 6 August he managed to reach an altitude of , but one of the blades of the propeller worked loose, resulting in a heavy landing which damaged the aircraft. He then fitted a 50 hp (37 kW) V-16 Antoinette engine. Tests on the 17 September showed a startling improvement in performance, with the aircraft quickly reaching an altitude of , when the engine suddenly cut out and the aircraft went into a spiralling nosedive. Blériot later said that his immediate thought was that he was finished: in desperation he climbed out of his seat and threw himself towards the tail. The aircraft partially pulled out of the dive, and came to earth in a more or less horizontal attitude. His only injuries were some minor cuts on the face, caused by fragments of glass from his broken goggles. After this crash Blériot abandoned development of the aircraft, concentrating on his next machine, the
Type VII.
This event was witnessed by a large proportion of the French aviation community, including
Robert Esnault-Pelterie
Robert Albert Charles Esnault-Pelterie (8 November 1881 – 6 December 1957) was a French aircraft designer and spaceflight theorist. He is referred to as being one of the founders of modern rocketry and astronautics, along with the Russian K ...
,
Ferdinand Ferber and the
Voisin brothers: also among the spectators was Blériot's wife Alice, who had come to watch one of her husband's flights for the first time. Esnault Pelterie paced out the length of the flight, measuring it at . This made it the longest flight achieved in France that year to date, and although the flight had not been officially witnessed, Blériot was awarded a special medal by the Aero Club de France for the feat.
[Elliott 2000 p. 60]
Specifications (VI-''bis'')
References
Bibliography
* Devaux, Jean and Michel Marani. "Les Douze Premiers Aéroplanes de Louis Blériot". ''Pegase'' No 54, May 1989.
* Elliott, Bryan A. ''Blériot: Herald of an Age''. Stroud: Tempus, 2000.
* Taylor, Michael J. H. ''Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation''. London: Studio Editions, 1989 p. 161
Nova: A Daring Flight
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bleriot 06
Single-engined tractor aircraft
1900s French experimental aircraft
6
Tandem-wing aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1907