The Blériot XI is one of the most famous aircraft in aviation history. Among its feats are the first crossing of the Channel and the first war flight.
The French industrialist Louis Blériot (1872-1936) launched his aviation research in 1900, building a number of aircraft that culminated in the Type VIII ter in which he flew 28 km on November 1, 1908.
With the assistance of Raymond Saulnier (1881-1964) and three workers, Blériot then created the Type XI, a monoplane with an uncovered truss fuselage and braced wings, with wing warping for lateral control. The aircraft began test flights in January 1908, when Blériot was issued the first pilot license in France. In the following months the Type XI was fitted with increasingly large wings and the three-cylinder, 25 HP engine designed by the Italian Alessandro Anzani (1879-1956).
In this configuration Blériot crossed the Channel on 25 July 1909, winning a £ 1,000 prize and becoming an instant celebrity. Within five years the Type XI was built in over 1,500 units, in versions often very different from the prototype. It was manufactured and used in many countries, including Italy. The reconnaissance flight over Azizia (Lybia) made on 23 October 1911 Captain Carlo M. Piazza (1871-1917) in his Blériot during the Turkish-Italian war was the first operational sortie in the world.
On 23 September 1910 the Peruvian pilot Geo Chavez (1887-1910) became the first to fly across the Alps. He crashed upon reaching Domodossola due to a wing failure, a common problem with Blériots, and died three days later. This Blériot XI is a reproduction built in Sweden by Mikael Carlsson for Giuliano Marini for the 100th anniversary of the crossing of the Alps. It is fitted with an original Gnome Omega rotary, no. 1057. It is on loan to the Museo dell’Aeronautica until September 2010.

Thanks to: Marini family