Dover’s Celebration of 100 years of cross-Channel aviation

Dover is at the heart of White Cliffs country, easily visible from nearby France only 24 miles across the English Channel. Because of its proximity to the French coastline and in particular the seaport of Calais, the modern day port of Dover has become an important ferry terminal acting as the gateway to England for sea-borne travellers.

It is also because the English Channel is at its shortest between Calais and Dover that the first attempts to fly over it in an aircraft were made between the two cities. On 25th July 1909 Louis Bleriot became the first person to successfully fly a ‘heavier-than-air’ craft over the Channel. Lining up alongside two other competitors starting from Les Barraques near Calais, Bleriot took 37 nail-biting minutes to fly 22 miles across the Channel in extremely poor weather conditions to eventually touchdown at Northfall Meadow near Dover Castle.

Bleriot’s successful flight owed much to the genius of Italian engineer Alessandro Anzani who designed and built the 25bhp engine that powered the monoplane aircraft known simply as the Bleriot XI. Because of their joint efforts Bleriot received prize money of £1,000 from the Daily Mail offered for the first-ever successful Channel crossing. In addition to receiving the cash prize Bleriot received worldwide fame and by completing the flight effectively forever ended the notion of England being a safe island community isolated from Europe.

To celebrate a century of aviation history since that momentous cross-Channel flight the port is staging a series of aerial and ground-based events with various combinations of Anglo-French-Italian themes certain to ensure that hotels in Dover are packed with air enthusiasts during the last weekend in July.

In addition to a series of fly pasts over the weekend of July 25th and 26th there will be Edwardian period musical events and an elaborate fireworks spectacular will close the proceedings on Sunday evening. Before that an air pageant including a procession of aeroplanes including models of the Bleriot XI, will fly over the Dover seafront. Shell provided the fuel that powered the original Bleriot XI and they are sponsors of an air race from Abbeville in France to commemorate their part in this slice of aviation history.

Of course, Dover featured heavily in the Second World War Battle of Britain and aircraft from that era, including a Spitfire MK XVI and a Lancaster bomber will also be involved in fly-pasts. In addition, the Great War Display Team will also be in attendance.

For those with a keen interest in aviation this will be a must-attend weekend, so if you are planning on staying in Dover during the last weekend in July, make sure you book before you go!