Nova tonight, "A Daring Flight". http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bleriot/
In 1909, Louis Bleriot undertakes a heroic first-ever flight across the English Channel.
Might be worth a watch, check ypur PBS station Tuesday February 22 at 8pm.

Too bad it's 10PM now. Oh well.

It was pretty good. Them early airplane guys were all a little off the deep end.:)
Im sure they will show it again, keep a look out for it.

I watched it. Very enjoyable, as are all shows about airplanes. Of course, this was running at the same time that the History channel in Canada was showing a program about early flying boats. Figures...nothing on TV all day and then everything I want to watch is on at the same time!

Honsetly, I do think that they overstated the importance of the flight. I'm not qualified to argue with historians but references to it being the 1909 equivalent of "a trip to the moon" or "death defying" were a bit much. It was a 30 mile trip in a straight line and there were escort ships in the channel. I guess people are entitled to their opinions.

As we saw at the end of the program, Bleriot's grandson survived a dip in the water trying to recreate the flight. I thought the reason for the crash was rather bizarre: "Failure to reverse rudder pedals"? Never heard that one before (and I was a pilot). I wonder if that was a diplomatic way of saying that the old guy got goofy-footed and kept applying right rudder when he tried to return to level from his right turn. The plane did appear to spiral in...not spin.

I guess looking at the flight from the time frame of 1909 any flight trip more then up and down an airfield was a huge thing. It did seem tame by todays standards. How about the small dog getting clipped by the prop before takeoff, not a good omen.
Yeah I couldn't believe the grandson fudged it too, he was making the turn and the plane started shaking really bad right before he spiraled in. That French airfield where Bleriot's grandson was flying was cool, Corsair,O.2A,old Piper Cubs and T6 (Harvard).

I guess looking at the flight from the time frame of 1909 any flight trip more then up and down an airfield was a huge thing.

I'm just not really that impressed because, by 1909 people were flying all over the world. In Canada, in 1909, a group of flyers had a series of planes flying a 20 mile circular course over a frozen lake. I see on the map that Bleriot made his crossing at the narrowest point of channel...swimming distance if you're in good shape :).

Bleriot's crossing might have been a bigger deal in 1904. Or it might have been a REALLY big deal if he had immediately flown a return leg. Personally his flight looks more like something Evel Knevel would do: a straight line shot over an obstacle followed by a survivable crash at the other end :).

Alcock and Brown's 1919 crossing of the Atlantic from right here in my town is a pretty impressive acheivement in my view.

http://www.fi.edu/flights/long/

Here is the plane taking off from St. John's:

http://www.fi.edu/flights/long/takeoffb.jpg

Huzz

Mom just found a story Dad wrote about a cross-country flight he took in the mid-50s that's pretty funny. In the war, Dad routinely flew over 500 miles of open ocean between Ie Shima and Japan with no landmarks to follow except the occasional tiny island. Even in training, he buzzed all over the eastern seaboard using dead reckoning and landmarks - even flew a P-47 up from Richmond to visit his folks in NJ. In 1954 he tried to fly his Taylorcraft from New Jersey to a family picnic in Ohio. He had rivers and railroads to follow, and 20 years experience flying the eastern US. He had engine failure, almost ran out of gas, got so lost he landed at a field on an island that turned out to be the wrong damn river... At least he managed to get back home before nightfall. Told the crew at the airport "Yeah, had a great trip! No problem!" :lol:

I must scan the text and add it to my website.