25th July 1909: Louis Blériot makes the first powered cross-Channel flight

French aviator Louis Charles Joseph Blériot made the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air aircraft. After graduating from the prestigious École Centrale in Paris, Blériot quickly established himself as a talented engineer, and launched his own company to sell the world’s first practical car headlamp. The success of this business provided him with the funds to begin developing his own aircraft. Having started with ornithopters and gliders, by 1905 Blériot had moved on...