Attracted by the experiments of M. Ernest Archdeacon he joined his following, and with Gabriel Voisin engaged in building gliders of the biplane type. By 1907 he had turned wholly to the monoplane idea, and in April of that year made his first leap into the air with a power-driven monoplane. By September he had so improved his machine that he was able to fly 600 feet, and in June, 1908, he broke the record for monoplanes by flying nearly a mile. Again and again he beat his own records, and at length the whole civilized world was thrilled by his triumphant flight across the British Channel on July 25, 1909.
The Bleriot machines hold nearly all the speed records, and many of those in other lines of achievement, and M. Bleriot enjoys the double honor of being an eminently successful manufacturer as well as a dauntless aviator of heroic rank.
GABRIEL VOISIN.
Gabriel Voisin, the elder of the two Voisin brothers, was born in 1879 at Belleville-sur-Saone, near the city of Lyons, France. He was educated as an architect, but early became interested in aeronautics, and engaged in gliding, stimulated by the achievements of Pilcher, in England, and Captain Ferber, in his own country. He assisted M. Archdeacon in his experiments on the Seine, often riding the gliders which were towed by the swift motor boats.
In 1906 he associated himself with his brother in the business of manufacturing biplane machines, and in March, 1907, he himself made the first long flight with a power-driven machine in Europe. This aeroplane was built for his friend Delagrange, and was one in which the latter was soon breaking records and winning prizes. The second machine was for Farman, who made the Voisin biplane famous by winning the Deutsch-Archdeacon prize of $10,000 for making a flight of 1,093 yards in a circle.
The Voisin biplane is distinctive in structure, and is accounted one of the leading aeroplanes of the present day.
LEON DELAGRANGE.
Leon Delagrange was born at Orleans, France, in 1873. He entered the School of Arts as a student in sculpture, about the same time that Henri Farman went there to study painting, and Gabriel Voisin, architecture. He exhibited at the Salon, and won several medals. In 1905, he took up aeronautics, assisted at the experiments of M. Archdeacon. His first aeroplane was built by Voisin, and he made his first flight at Issy, March 14, 1907. Less than a month later—on April 11—he made a new record for duration of flight, remaining in the air for 9 minutes and 15 seconds—twice as long as the previous record made by Farman.
Leblanc, Bleriot, and Delagrange, (from left to right) in aviation dress, standing in front of the Bleriot machine which crossed the English Channel.