In September 1910 another flying school was opened at the newly established Hendon aerodrome near London. In late 1909 Blériot established a flying training school for pilots at Etampes near Rouen, and early the next year a second school was opened at Pau, Between 19 these schools trained around 1,000 pilots: nearly half of the pilots holding an Aero Club de France brevet at the outbreak of the First World War had been trained by the Blériot schools. This commercial success enabled the research side of the business to expand considerably, and in the years before the First World War a startlingly heterogeneous collection of aircraft were produced, although none came close to being as successful as the Type XI. The publicity gained by this achievement brought the company orders for large numbers of the Type XI, and several hundred were eventually made. Gnome engined production Blériot XI Aircraft design and manufacturing A brief partnership with Voisin followed, but after the failure of the Blériot III and its modified version, the Blériot IV, the partnership was dissolved and Blériot set up his own company, 'Recherches Aéronautique Louis Blériot' (Louis Blériot Aeronautical Research). In 1901 he had built a small unmanned ornithopter, but his serious involvement with aviation began in April 1905 when he witnessed Gabriel Voisin's first experiments with a floatplane glider towed behind a motorboat on the river Seine. Louis Blériot was an engineer who had developed the first practical headlamp for cars and had established a successful business marketing them.

6.3 Blériot aircraft after the First World War.6.2 Blériot aircraft during the First World War.6.1 Blériot aircraft before the First World War.

Bleriot by Brian A. Elliot