July 25

In 1909 The Daily Mail, a prominent English newspaper, offered a prize of ₤1000 to the first successful flight to cross the English Channel using a heavier than air craft. On the 25th in 1909 Jacques Bleriot, a French aircraft designer, took the Mail up on its offer and, in a monoplane of his own design, the Bleriot XI, he flew from Calais to Dover in 37 minutes. The French were understandably elated at Bleriot’s success while the British were distressed to a very considerable degree because now they realized that not only were they vulnerable to attack from the sea, but from the air as well.