Louis Blériot

Louis Blériot was a French engineer, inventor, and aviator who financed his early aviation experiments with a successful automobile-headlamp business. On July 25, 1909, he piloted his Blériot XI across the English Channel, becoming the first person to complete that flight in an airplane and helping establish aviation as a public spectacle. He later founded an aircraft-manufacturing company and remained influential in the development of early aviation.