French designer Louis Bleriot developed in 1909 an aircraft with a wooden, lattice fuselage construction, in a high-wing configuration with a tractor propeller. After minor improvements, the Blériot VII bis model flew a distance of 30 km in 1908.
The next version – XI – was less complicated. The designer abandoned the use of ailerons and the double horizontal stabiliser. The ailerons were replaced by wing-warping at the wingtips.
Version XI earned its place in aviation history through many achievements. In addition to the first flight across the English Channel on 25 July 1909, Frenchman Adolphe Pégoud performed
the first inverted flight in history on a Blériot aircraft on 1 September 1913. A week later, over the airfield at Buc, he also demonstrated a barrel roll and a loop.
Bleriot XI aircraft were also built on Polish territory – 3 machines were produced at the Warsaw Aviata factory in 1911. In the early period of the First World War, the next version of this aircraft – XII – was used for reconnaissance missions. The Blériot XII was slightly larger than previous versions and could carry two additional passengers.
The exhibited Blériot XI aircraft is a replica built in 1967 by Pawel Zolotow. The Blériot XI copy was equipped with a Salmson radial engine with 40 hp output. In October 1968, the specimen was transferred to the Museum’s collection.
The 37-minute flight across the Channel brought Louis Blériot great popularity and hundreds of buyers for his machines both in France and abroad. By 1915, nearly 1,000 examples of this aircraft type had been built – it was one of the most widespread designs of the pioneer era in European aviation.
| Wingspan | 8.5 m |
| Length | 7.6 m |
| Takeoff weight | 220 kg |
| Maximum speed | 70 km/h |
| Ceiling | – |
| Range | – |
| Armament | – |
| Engine | 3-cylinder, “W” configuration Anzani with 25 hp (18 kW) output |
