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Title: Blériot (& his design)
Description: French artist Georges Villa’s (1883—1965) poster is a tribute to French pilot and aeronautical manufacturer Louis Blériot (1872—1936). Having created his first aviation poster for the 1910 air show in Rouen, Villa became a noted aviation illustrator whose work often made appearances in the preeminent French aviation journal, L’Aerophile. Blériot, who died due to heart failure in August 1936, is depicted amongst the clouds, his aeronautical inventions swooping and soaring around him like fanciful birds, some coming close as if to take food from his hand. The poster’s heavenly atmosphere suggest Blériot’s final destination, but also depicts the realm of Blériot’s great imagination Born in Cambrai, in the north of France, Blériot entered the field of engineering, specifically designing headlamps for automobiles. |
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However, fascinated by aviation, he bought a Voisin aircraft in 1905, which introduced him to the new and exciting world of aviation. He made his famous flight across the Channel from France to England on Sunday, July 25, 1909, in a monoplane of his own design, the Blériot XI, winning the Northcliffe prize. Although his flying career came to a painful end in a crash in Turkey in December of 1909, his aircraft business… took off. Blériot Aéronautique manufactured more than eight hundred airplanes between 1909—1914. Even though many in the aviation community remained skeptical of monoplane configuration—as compared to the seemingly more stable and safe multi-wing models–Blériot, his engineers and test pilots remained faithful to the monoplane. In the end, they developed a safe, reliable, and stable design. Blériot also operated a flying school, where during World War I, pilots hailing from all the Allied nations learned to fly. In July 1929, Blériot once again, and for his last time, flew the English Channel—it was the the 12th anniversary of his first crossing. Two years later, he introduced the Blériot 125—the double-fuselage airplane that swoops into the poster’s upper right hand corner above the aviator’s head. Although this aircraft was so unsuccessful that the French government never deemed it flight-worthy, it was a forward-looking design, including seats for 12 passengers. In 1934, he made a visit to the United States during which he predicted that transatlantic passenger flights would soon become a regularity. Blériot remained a staunch supporter of aviation until his death. Villa’s reverent and whimsical portrait of Blériot well-represents the man whose drive, enthusiasm, and creativity had spurred on the force of French aviation, and whose machines had blazed new trails in the sky and into history. |
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