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The Blériot XI is the aircraft that was used by Louis Blériot on 25 July 1909 to make the first flight across the English Channel made in a heavier-than-air aircraft. This achievement is one of the most famous accomplishments of the pioneer era of aviation, and not only won Blériot a lasting place in history but also assured the future of his aircraft manufacturing business. The event caused a major reappraisal of the importance of aviation; the English newspaper ''The Daily Express'' led its story of the flight with the headline "Britain is no longer an Island".〔("The Wider View: 100 years after Blériot first flew across the Channel, an identical plane repeats the feat (but not before the French had blocked the first attempt)." ) ''The Daily Express,'' 26 July 2009. Retrieved: 8 January 2012.〕 It was produced in both single- and two-seat versions, powered by a number of different engines and was widely used for competition and training purposes. Military versions were bought by many countries, continuing in service until after the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Two restored examples — one each in the United Kingdom and the United States — of original Blériot XI aircraft are thought to be the two oldest flyable aircraft in the world. ==Design== The Blériot XI, largely designed by Raymond Saulnier,〔Elliott 2000, p. 142.〕 was a development of the Blériot VIII, which Blériot had flown successfully in 1908. Like its predecessor, it was a tractor-configuration monoplane with a partially covered box-girder fuselage built from ash with wire cross bracing. The principal difference was the use of wing warping for lateral control. The tail surfaces consisted of a small balanced, "all-moving" vertical rudder with no fixed fin, at the very rear vertical member of the fuselage structure, and a single-level, horizontal tailplane surface with elevator surfaces comprising the outermost cell of the stabilizer's structure on each end, pivoting together with a torque tube running through the fixed inner sections linking the "tip elevators", mounted under the lower longerons of the fuselage. Like its predecessor, it had the engine mounted directly in front of the leading edge of the wing and the bracing and warping wires attached to a cabane structure made from steel tubing above the fuselage, with its five members oriented like the edges of a simple single-gabled house roof in shape, and an inverted four-sided pyramid-form ventral cabane, also of steel tubing, below it. When first built, it had a wingspan of and a small teardrop-shaped fin mounted on the cabane,〔("Blériot No.9" )'Flight'' 9 January 1909〕 which was later removed. The main undercarriage was also like that of the Type VIII, the wheels being mounted in castering trailing arms, which could slide up and down steel tubes, the movement being sprung by bungee cords. This simple and ingenious design allowed crosswind landings with less risk of damage. A sprung tailwheel was fitted to the rear fuselage in front of the tailplane, with a nearly identical castoring arrangement in its design to the maingear strutwork. When shown at the Paris Aero Salon in December 1908, the aircraft was powered by a 7-cylinder R.E.P. engine driving a four-bladed paddle-type propeller. The aircraft was first flown at Issy-les-Moulineaux on 23 January 1909,〔("Bleriot Flies His Short-Span Machine." ) ''Flight'', 30 February 1909.〕 but although the aircraft handled well, the engine proved extremely unreliable and, at the suggestion of his mechanic Ferdinand Collin, Blériot made contact with Alessandro Anzani, a famous motorcycle racer whose successes were due to the engines that he made, and who had recently entered the field of aero-engine manufacture. On 27 May 1909, a Anzani 3-cylinder fan-configuration (semi-radial) engine was fitted.〔Elliott 2000, p. 73.〕 The propeller was also replaced with a Chauvière ''Intégrale'' two-bladed propeller made from laminated walnut wood. This propeller design was a major advance in French aircraft technology and was the first European propeller to rival the efficiency of the propellers used by the Wright Brothers.〔Gibbs-Smith, C.H., ''Aviation''. London: NMSO, 2003, p. 150.〕 During early July, Blériot was occupied with flight trials of a new aircraft, the two-seater Type XII, but resumed flying the Type XI on 18 July. By then, the small cabane fin had been removed and the wingspan increased by . On 26 June, he managed a flight lasting 36 minutes 55 seconds, and on 13 July, Blériot won the Aero Club de France's first ''Prix du Voyage'' with a flight between Etampes and Orléans.〔Eliott 2000, p. 96.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Blériot XI」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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