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Bleriot XI marks centenary of historic flight
AFP - Sunday, July 26
BLERIOT-PLAGE, France (AFP) - - One hundred years to the day after Louis Bleriot claimed his place in aviation history, a restored original of his plane successfully crossed the Channel from France to England Saturday.
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Complete with a flowing 20th century white flier's scarf, leather aviator cap and goggles, French pilot Edmond Salis set off from Les Barraques near Calais -- since renamed Bleriot-Plage, or beach -- in a 1934 cloth and wood monoplane mounted on bicycle wheels.
Identical to the one flown by Bleriot on July 25, 1909, Salis took off amid the cacophony of its hand-cranked single-engine propeller around 9:00 am (0700 GMT) with a life vest strapped to his back and watched by several hundred enthusiasts.
Despite high winds initially threatening his departure, around 45 minutes later he landed without problems in the English port of Dover. Bleriot's flight took just 37 minutes, and convinced a sceptical public that aviation had a future.
In marking Bleriot's feat -- the first flight across a large body of water, albeit several years after the Wright Brothers were generally credited with pioneering successful air travel -- Salis was following in the footsteps of his own father and grandfather.
Each had also made the same crossing in the same aeroplane, which was itself used to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Bleriot's crossing.
"It was an extraordinary adventure," a proud Salis said afterwards. "The departure was a bit nervous, because of the wind, but once take-off was complete, it was sublime.
"I very quickly caught sight of the English coast, and told myself the only concern I could have would be the engine, but I know this engine well," he added, referring to dozens of flying hours in the aircraft.
"Louis Bleriot surely asked himself the same questions as us before taking off, but there was more uncertainty then, since nobody had ever done it before him," Salis had said before taking to the skies.
Around 300 French, British and Belgian pilots were due to join in the tribute later Saturday, flying in waves over the Channel on board microlight aircraft, seen as the closest modern equivalent to Bleriot's plane.
Another replica plane flown by remote-control nevertheless crashed into the ground just a few hundred metres (yards) after taking off, underlining the danger still involved.
Bleriot covered the 43 kilometres (26 miles) at an average speed of 65 kilometres per hour, landing in a field at dawn at the foot of Dover castle.
The same Bleriot XI contraption has already been flown over the Channel three times to mark various commemorations.
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French pilot Edmond Salis on his way to Dover in a Bleriot XI cloth-and-wood monoplane. A restored original of the plane in which Louis Bleriot crossed the Channel 100 years ago has successfully repeated the French aviator's historic feat.
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