For some reason one of those pop-up “notifications” came up on my phone this morning, and it was “this day in history.” Usually I just swipe these things aside, but I happened to look at it and it said that on this date in 1909, the world’s first international overseas airplane flight was achieved by Louis Bleriot.
Well, believe it or not, I knew that Louis was the one that made the first international overseas airplane flight — I didn’t remember the date, but I had read about it a few years ago.
I suppose I remembered it because it was kind of a cool story. If I recall the story correctly, Louis Bleriot was a French aviator and the flight was made in a small monoplane. The story goes that after he asked, “Where is England?” he took off from France and landed in England, near Dover. Upon his arrival, he was greeted by British police.
Actually what made Bleriot famous was that this was the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier than air aircraft. (It was a 22-mile flight that took 36 minutes and 30 seconds.)
He went on to become the founder of a successful aircraft manufacturing company. In 1936, the Louis Bleriot medal was established by the Federation Aeronautique International and is awarded for speed, altitude and distance records for light aircraft.