BLERIOT

Louis Blériot made large brass car headlamps. Also constructed unsuccessful ornithopter (flapping wing) 1901, and Voisin-Blériot glider seaplane 1905. Blériot III and IV made by Voisin. First successful machine was Blériot V pusher canard April 1907, followed by series of improved monoplanes leading to XIbis, or XI mod, cross-Channel 25 July 1909. This triggered massive orders, many civil and military variants, nearly 800 built in 1913 alone. Main factory at Suresnes, Paris, Société Blériot Aéronautique produced succession of undistinguished wartime aircraft, including 4-engined LIII (i.e. 53), 67, 73 and 74 4-engined bombers and derived 75 Aérobus airliner. Link with SPAD company August 1914, and takeover 1921, resulted after 1917 in SPAD designs being designated Blériot-SPAD, as noted later. Blériot's own designs, directed by André Herbemont, Léon Kirste and Filippo Zappata, included: 106 transport 1924, 110 long-range record-breaker 1930, 111 high-speed executive transport 1929, 115 airliner 1923, 118 fighter amphibian 1925, 125 twin-fuselage transport 1931, 127 multirole bomber 1926, 165 and 175 airliners 1926, 195 mailplane 1929, 290 3-seat amphibian 1931, and 5190 giant transport flying-boat 1933. When Herbemont replaced Béchereau as chief designer of SPAD in 1917 subsequent designs were called Blériot-SPAD: S.XIV fighter seaplane 1917, S.XX 2-seat fighter 1918 and 11 derived versions, S.27 light transport 1919, S.33 airliner 1920 and 17 derived versions, S.34 trainer 1920 and 13 derived versions, S.42 trainer 1921 and 3 derived versions, S.51 fighter 1924 and 3 derived versions, S.61 fighter 1923 and 13 derived versions, S.81 fighter 1923 and 6 derived versions, and S.91 fighter of 1930, from which stemmed S.510 used by Armée de l'Air 1937-40.

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