Late great engineers: Louis Blériot - aviation pioneer  

In one of the most celebrated accomplishments in the pioneer era of aviation, on 25 July 1909 French engineer Louis Blériot flew his Blériot Type XI monoplane across the English Channel. It was the first time a heavier-than-air aircraft had achieved such a feat, with the Calais to Dover flight taking a mere 36.5 minutes. Although the prize of £1000 (well over £100k in today’s money) was awarded by the Daily Mail newspaper, it would be left to its rival the Daily Express to dramatically steal the limelight by proclaiming that ‘Britain is no longer an Island’. While the achievement made Blériot an overnight celebrity – the aircraft was even put on display in Selfridges – it also resulted in a hundred orders for the Blériot XI, assuring the future of his aircraft manufacturing business Blériot Aéronautique. But, as Brian A Elliott notes in his biography Blériot: Herald of an Age, we should avoid defining the French aviator’s career by ‘this one event that made him a household name the world over’.