Blériot VIII

The Blériot VIII was a French pioneer-era aeroplane built by Louis Blériot in 1908, after his tandem-wing Blériot VI and the Blériot VII. In this machine he reduced the rear wing until it served mainly as a horizontal stabiliser, and he adopted a single control stick for roll and pitch together with a foot-operated rudder bar. The article describes it as the first use in one airframe of the hand-operated joystick and foot-operated rudder combination that is still the basic format of aircraft controls. Blériot modified it during 1908 as the VIII-bis and VIII-ter, could now fly in circles, and stayed aloft for up to eight minutes at a time. On 29 June 1908 he claimed an Automobile Club de France prize for a flight at 200 metres altitude, and in October he flew a 14 km cross-country round trip from Toury to Artenay.