Aviation History – August 1, 1936. On this Saturday 1er August 1936, French aviation lost one of its greatest pioneers in the person of Louis Charles Joseph Blériot, who had made a name for himself in the skies as a pilot but also as an airplane builder, bringing a large tribute to the development of aerial locomotion.
It was at his home, located in Paris, that the aviator died, having unfortunately been struck down by a heart attack. A death which comes a month to the day after Blériot celebrated his 64th birthday. Passing between the clutches of death on several occasions, the pilot having had several accidents at the controls of an airplane, the aviation will not have succeeded in posting it to its list of victims and yet, the man did not spared no effort to make the dream of Icarus a reality for all, taking many risks to develop its devices.
Holder of the first pilot’s license, having obtained it in his capacity as a pioneer without taking an exam, Louis Blériot made history on July 25, 1909, the date on which he signed the first crossing of the English Channel, flying from Calais to Dover with a Blériot XI with a 3-cylinder Alesandro Anzani engine, capable of developing a power of no less than 25 horsepower.
