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It took creativity as well as a bold spirit to build and
attempt to fly in primitive aircraft made of wood, wire, and
fabric. Louis Blériot produced dozens of airplane
designs over the course of his pioneering career. His Type XI,
the small monoplane in which he crossed the English Channel in
1909, was one of the most influential and commercially viable
planes of its era. Yet in the years leading up to this
success, Blériot may have had what aviation journalist
Michele Benichou called "too much
imagination"—concocting wildly different machines, many
of which never got off the ground. Learn more about them here.
To launch this
slide show, click on
the image at left.*—Susan K. Lewis
*Thanks to Tom Crouch of the National Air and Space Museum in
Washington, D.C., whose book
Blériot XI: The Story of a Classic Aircraft was
the primary source for this feature.
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