Source:
APBy NICOLAS GARRIGA, Associated Press Writer – 7 mins ago
CALAIS, France – A French pilot on Saturday recreated the first-ever flight across the English Channel in a monoplane like the one that Louis Bleriot flew in 1909, complete with a wooden propeller, bicycle wheels and an engine about as powerful as a lawnmower.
Edmond Salis took off from Bleriot Beach, near Calais on France's northern coast, at 9:13 am local time (0713 GMT), arriving 40 minutes later in Dover. That's just slightly longer than it took Bleriot, who made his historic crossing July 25, 1909, in 38 minutes.
"The takeoff was a bit delicate because there were crosswinds at Bleriot Beach," said Salis, decked out in a leather aviator jacket and hat and a flowing white scarf, in an interview on I-Tele television. "Once I was in the air, I could already see the English coast. Listen, the closer the English coast came, the more I enjoyed it."
Before the flight, Salis dismissed any fears about flying the wooden and canvas craft, which dates from 1934.
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Bleriot made his flight six years after the Wright brothers flew overland over Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, and during a decade in which pioneers in Europe and North America were developing the rudiments of airplane technology and expanding its limits.