French pilot re-enacts 1st English Channel flight

[tocqueville]

Source: AP

By NICOLAS GARRIGA, Associated Press Writer – 7 mins ago

CALAIS, France – A French pilot on Saturday recreated the first-ever flight across the English Channel in a monoplane like the one that Louis Bleriot flew in 1909, complete with a wooden propeller, bicycle wheels and an engine about as powerful as a lawnmower.

Edmond Salis took off from Bleriot Beach, near Calais on France's northern coast, at 9:13 am local time (0713 GMT), arriving 40 minutes later in Dover. That's just slightly longer than it took Bleriot, who made his historic crossing July 25, 1909, in 38 minutes.

"The takeoff was a bit delicate because there were crosswinds at Bleriot Beach," said Salis, decked out in a leather aviator jacket and hat and a flowing white scarf, in an interview on I-Tele television. "Once I was in the air, I could already see the English coast. Listen, the closer the English coast came, the more I enjoyed it."

Before the flight, Salis dismissed any fears about flying the wooden and canvas craft, which dates from 1934.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090725/ap_on_re_eu/eu_france_flight_of_folly

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Bleriot made his flight six years after the Wright brothers flew overland over Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, and during a decade in which pioneers in Europe and North America were developing the rudiments of airplane technology and expanding its limits.

[tocqueville]

1. pic from the current flight

[MineralMan]

2. Cool stuff.

[tocqueville]

3. video of the start

http://www.dailymotion.com/search/bleriot/video/x9yst0_pilots-recreate-first-crosschannel_news

[Turbineguy]

4. Those magnificent Men in their Flying Machines.

[onehandle]

5. I saw Bleriot's plane at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris last year.

As you can see in the photo, it's suspended from the ceiling. That photo is taken from a series of elevated walkways that take you closer to the vehicles in that room, which is a converted church.

My second favorite museum in Paris. Great for science geeks.

[tocqueville]

6. Bleriot XI in flight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATbV2i9cfQE

[struggle4progress]

7. Otto Lilienthal's gliding really gripped the Victorian imagination: his fatal crash in 1896

was international news

http://www.flyingmachines.org.nyud.net:8090/lilienEE.jpg
http://www.flyingmachines.org/lilthl.html

http://homepage.eircom.net.nyud.net:8090/~kogrange/flight_liliantal2.jpg
http://homepage.eircom.net/~kogrange/6th_flight_liliantal.html

http://www.johnelkington.com.nyud.net:8090/journal/photos/large/Lilienthal.jpg
http://www.johnelkington.com/journal/journal_entry.asp?id=80

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn4xf_P-l60

[Brother Buzz]

8. I heard about the flight on the radio and thought, "cool", but didn't realize....

Salis flew on the 100th anniversary of the Calais-Dover flight in a 75 year old plane, including the engine!