Blériot III

The Blériot III was an early French aeroplane built by the pioneer aviators Louis Blériot and Gabriel Voisin in 1906. It had an unusual layout, with two large elliptical closed wing cells set one behind the other and joined by booms, and a single transversely mounted 24 horsepower (18 kilowatt) Antoinette engine on the lower front wing that drove two tractor propellers through flexible shafts and reduction gearing. Blériot and Voisin tried to fly it from the Lac d'Engheim in May 1906 but it would not become airborne. It was then rebuilt as the Blériot IV, with a rudder, a conventional biplane front wing, a second engine and pusher propellers, yet that version also failed to fly and was damaged beyond repair at the Parc de Bagatelle on 12 November 1906. The failure ended the partnership between Voisin and Blériot.