Saturday 9 August 2014

French aviator wounded by anti-aircraft fire

9 August 1914

French aviator wounded in action


Yesterday, a French observer from Escadrille BL 10 was wounded during a scouting mission by small-arms fire directed at his aircraft from the ground.
He is the first French airman known to be wounded in action.

Although his name is unavailable, the pilot of the aircraft was Caporal Joseph Sadi-Lacointe. BL 10 is equipped with the Blériot XI monoplane, described below.




The Blériot XI

The Blériot XI is the world’s most numerous aeroplane, and is the first to have been produced in series. It was in the prototype that five years ago, Louis Blériot became the first person to fly across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air craft. Since then, Blériot’s factory has manufactured hundreds of examples and exported them all over the globe. By some accounts, there are more Blériot XIs in the world today than aeroplanes of all other types put together.
 
A Blériot XI in Royal Flying Corps colours


It is impossible to overstate how influential this design has been. Owing to the success of the Type XI, its basic arrangement has become almost de rigueur in aeroplane design, slowly displacing the many other configurations that have proliferated in the last decade. That arrangement is to organise the various components around a fuselage that serves as a “backbone” for the aeroplane, with the engine and propeller at the front, and the elevators and rudder clustered together at the tail.

The Aéronautique Militaire is a major user of the type; it equips seven of the twenty-three escadrilles mobilised. However, the Imperial Russian Air Service and Britain’s Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service also operate the Blériot XI in quantity. The type has seen combat even before yesterday; last year, Bulgarian airmen used it to drop bombs on Ottoman forces during the seige of Adrianople last year.



Blériot XIs of 3 Squadron RFC at Netheravon in June







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