The feat of flying across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air machine ╤ a thing which had never before been done ╤ was accomplished yesterday morning by M. Louis Bleriot, in a monoplane of his own construction. It was done, moreover, in the short period of 33 minutes, the start being made at 4:35 and the descent at 5:08 a.m. The distance traversed was 26 miles or more, the bee-line distance being 22 miles, whilst parallel run along the coast from St. Margaret╒s to Dover, would be four to five miles.
It was nearly half-past four yesterday morning when the news reached Dover that M. Bleriot contemplated making the flight, and a few minutes later came a wireless message stating that he was actually on his way across the French coast, having ascended at Baraques, a village two miles to the west of Calais. The monoplane travelled with great rapidity, and its motor made such a din that it was heard when it must have been six or seven miles from Dover, and nothing could be seen there. Dover had intended making a suitable demonstration when the Channel was first crossed on a flying machine, but as events turned out there was no time to do anything whatever. M. Bleriot╒s great bird-like machine was first sighted over the Channel to the eastward of Dover, heading for St. Margaret╒s Bay, a little resort about five miles along the cliffs between Dover and Deal. When off St. Margaret╒s it suddenly came round with a fine sweep to the westward, still at a high rate of speed. Strange as it may seem, the monoplane, now that it was heading westward, was travelling against a fresh south-west 20-miles-an-hour breeze, but this appeared to cause no diminution in the surprising rate of travel.
