Blériot IX

The Blériot IX was an unsuccessful early French aeroplane built by Louis Blériot. Encouraged by the rising altitude, distance and duration of the flights of the Blériot VIII in 1908, he built a new machine along the same general lines but heavier and with a more powerful engine, a 48 kilowatt (65 horsepower) Antoinette 16V. It was a wire-braced mid-winged monoplane with conventional landing gear and an open cockpit, and it used two large vertically mounted steam radiators and an all-metal ground-adjustable four-blade propeller, a unique feature for the time. It was exhibited at the Paris Motor Show in December 1908, but the design proved overweight and could not be made to leave the ground. Its recorded length is 12 metres and its wingspan 9 metres.