Passion

Virtual exhibition “Louis Blériot crosses the Channel by plane”

Explore the exhibition "Louis Blériot crosses the Channel by plane" through Google’s cultural institute and experience this feat as if you were there!

Explore the exhibition “Louis Blériot crosses the Channel by plane” at the Musée des Arts et Métiers through Google’s cultural institute and experience this feat as if you were there!

Through fully accessible online content, discover a moment in the life of Louis Blériot, the man who crossed the English Channel using his own aircraft, the Blériot XI, and who took every risk to achieve his dream. Louis Charles Joseph Blériot is one of the earliest pilots and a pioneer of French aviation, designing more than 11 different aircraft prototypes and filing some 100 patents.

Upon returning to Paris in 1909, the newspaper “l’Illustration” reported:
“The great feat was accomplished: for the first time, a man flying in a contraption made of canvas and steel that spit fire, like a dragon of legends past, successfully crossed the sea. He left one continent and landed in another, by air – when the skies had yet to be fully dominated.”

Despite a foot injury that day, it took Blériot 37 minutes to travel 35 km, flying at an average speed of 57 km/h, he became the first man to cross the Channel by plane on July 25, 1909.

Exhibition: “Louis Blériot crosses the Channel by plane”, Google Art and Culture