Bleriot - XI - the French raid aircraft

In mid-July 1909, three pilots were preparing to fly from the mainland to England: Count de Lambert on the “Wright”, Hubert Latham on the “Antoinette”, and Louis Bleriot on the “Bleriot-XI”. His plane was powered by an “Anzani” engine, which had one serious drawback: after working for 20 minutes, it overheated and stopped working. And this allowed to fly only a distance of 20 - 22 km. The English Channel is 38 km wide at its narrowest point. Until then, Bleriot had a number of crashes with his plane, so no one thought he would succeed in overcoming this obstacle. Count Latham took off first on July 19, but his plane landed in the water without flying to a goal of 15 km. On July 25, in very bad weather, Bleriot took off and those bad conditions helped him - the first signs of engine overheating appeared as he approached a distance of 20 km. But there was heavy rain here and it cooled the engine perfectly. After a 38-minute flight, Bleriot landed happily in one of Dover’s pastures.

A model of moderate, but demanding attention and diligence, that can be done even by an advanced novice modeler, working under the supervision of a more experienced colleague.