BLERIOT-PLAGE, France: One hundred years to the day after Louis Bleriot claimed his place in aviation history, a restored original of his plane successfully crossed the Channel from France to England on Saturday.
Complete with a flowing 20th century white flier's scarf, leather aviator cap and goggles, French pilot Edmond Salis set off from Les Barraques near Calais - since renamed Bleriot-Plage, or beach - in a 1934 cloth and wood monoplane mounted on bicycle wheels.
Identical to the one flown by Bleriot on July 25, 1909, Salis took off amid the cacophony of its hand-cranked single-engine propeller around 9 am (about 3 pm Beijing time) with a life vest strapped to his back.
Despite high winds initially threatening his departure, around 45 minutes later he landed without problems in the English port of Dover. Bleriot's flight took just 37 minutes, and convinced a skeptical public that aviation had a future.
In marking Bleriot's feat - the first flight across a large body of water, albeit several years after the Wright Brothers were generally credited with pioneering successful air travel - Salis was following in the footsteps of his own father and grandfather. Each had also made the same crossing in the same aeroplane.
"It was an extraordinary adventure," a proud Salis said afterwards. "The departure was a bit nervous, because of the wind, but once take-off was complete, it was sublime."
"I very quickly caught sight of the English coast, and told myself the only concern I could have would be the engine, but I know this engine well," he added, referring to dozens of flying hours in the aircraft.
"Louis Bleriot surely asked himself the same questions as us before taking off, but there was more uncertainty then, since nobody had ever done it before him," Salis had said before taking to the skies.
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