Blériot XI / Thulin A (trainer, 1914-1916)

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In 1913, Enoch Thulin started what a couple of years later was going to be the large aircraft manufacturer ”AB Enoch Thulins Aeroplanfabrik” (AETA). In 1918,  AETA had nearly 900 employees, but went bankrupt after the end of WWI, when the market was flooded of all war surplus.

 Enoch Thulin, trained in flying and aircraft design in France, owned himself a Blériot XI and had also got the license to build this design in Sweden. Thulin called his version ”Thulin A”. Most Thulin A:s were sold abroad, but some found its way to the Swedish Army Aviation.

 The type was fitted with a 50 hp 7-cylinder rotating Gnome engine.

 At the outbreak of WWI, all civilian Swedish aeroplanes were mobilised. This included the frenchbuilt Blériot XI ”Nordstjernan” (Northern Star), imported in 1911 by Carl Cederström, ”the Flying Baron”.  

Diorama with Thulin A and model of Nordstjernan exhibited at Flygvapenmuseum.

Length: 7,5 m. Span: 8,85 m.  Maximum take-off weight: 400 kg. Max. speed: 80 km/h.

 
For the Model Builder

Eastern Express has a plastic model kit of Blériot XI in scale 1:72. Catalouge number 72219. Decals for Swedish markings are not included. Click on the thumbnail for larger picture.		  Plastic model kit of Bleriot XI from Eastern Express in scale 1/72.
 
 

 
 

 
Stamp showing the Bleriot XI used at the first mail flight in Australia. Drawing after the original stamp by Lars Henriksson, www.avrosys.nu. Stamp from Norway - Tryggve Gran's North Sea Flight 1914 with a Blériot XI
This stamp from 1964 commemorative of the 50th anniversary of the first air mail flight in Australia. The pilot was the French aviator Maurice Guillaux. His aircraft,  a Bleriot XI with a 50 hp Gnome engine, is seen on the stamp. With a cargo of 2000 postcards and a number of letters, Guillaux flew from Melbourne to Sidney on the 16th of July 1914. Tryggve Gran (1888-1980) was a Norwegian navy officer, aviator and explorer. He was a member of the 1910–13 Scott Antarctic Expedition. Home again in Europe he became interested in aviation. He learnt to fly at Blériot's aviation school in Paris. On 30th July 1914, he became the first pilot to cross the North Sea. He flew in his Blériot XI-2 from Cruden Bay in Scotland to Jćren in Norway. The stamp above commemorates his brave flight. During WWI, Gran served in the British RFC. This South African stamp; issued in 1993, shows Evelyn “Bok” Driver’s Blériot XI with a 3-cyliber Anzani engine. With this aeroplane he made the first airmail flight in South Africa. He started at Kenilworth Race Course in Cape Town and landed at Oldham’s filed near Muizenberg. It took him seven and a half minute to fly the distance of 8 miles (about 13 km). The average speed was thus 64 mph (104 km/h).
 
   
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© Lars Henriksson

Updated 2013-04-28