The first person to fly the English Channel in an airplane was a Frenchman called Louis Bleriot. The flight took place on 25 July 1909 and won Bleriot a prize of £1,000 from the Daily Mail. An earlier attempt five days earlier, by Englishman Herbert Latham, had ended when he had ditched in the sea.
Bleriot, a motorcar headlamp manufacturer, had injured his foot and walked to his plane with the aid of crutches. He took off at 4.37am and, guided by smoke from a French destroyer, he spotted St Margaret’s Bay. Turning towards Dover he was caught by the wind and made a crash landing in Northfall Meadow, behind the Castle, breaking the undercarriage and propeller. The whole journey had taken 20 minutes.
A memorial in the form of a stone silhouette of Bleriot’s plane is set into the ground at the place where he landed.
Here is an aerial view from Google Maps (Scroll down to see Dover Castle )
Google Videos - Bleriot Memorial
1909 Bl�riot XI - Jan Hilgers Memorial Airshow (Saturday 9-18-2010)
Two hops in the 1909 Bl�riot XI ( full-size replica) by pilot Henk van Hoorn. See more at picasaweb.google.com
1909 Bl�riot XI - Jan Hilgers Memorial Airshow (Friday 9-17-2010)
Flight of the 1909 Bl�riot XI ( full-size replica) by pilot Henk van Hoorn. See more at picasaweb.google.com
HOVERCRAFT OVER CHANNEL
crosses Channel to unveil memorial to pioneer aviator Louis Bleriot. ... calais france dover kent hovercrafts pilots peter lamb louis bleriot ...
1909 Bl�riot XI - Jan Hilgers Memorial Airshow (Friday 9-17-2010) BETTER VERSION
Flight of the 1909 Bl�riot XI ( full-size replica) by pilot Henk van Hoorn. VOB convert from footage shot by JDB Media � See more stills at ...
Centenary Celebration Flight Promo
where Jacques landed 100 years previously. The clip ends at the Bl�riot Memorial site where Bl�riot landed in 1909. In addition the celebrations ...
Bleriot XI in flight
Taken during la ferte airshow 2003. more at www.memorial-flight.com
Bleriot in flight
Bleriot in flight with inflight shooting, october 2002. more at www.memorial-flight.com
Bleriot XI -Memorial Chavez-Marini -
Aviosuperfice Masera 12/09/2010
Bl�riot's Channel Flight
In 1909 the Frenchman Louis Bl�riot became the first person to fly an aeroplane across the English Channel, from France to Kent.Follow us on ...
Jan Hilgers Memorial Airshow 2010
18 september 2010 op de Ginkelse Heide, Ede
