Place Name
Louis Charles Joseph Blériot (July 1, 1872 – August 1, 1936), the brilliant French inventor and aviator, who became world-famous for making the first airplane flight across the English Channel. He was also founder of a successful aircraft manufacturing company, Recherches Aéronautiques Louis Blériot. After university he became an engineer, developing the first practical headlamp for automobiles. The success of the lamps allowed him time to concentrate on designing and building aircraft. Until, in 1909, he entered a Daily Mail competition offering a £1,000 prize for the first pilot to cross the Channel in an aeroplane. This he achieved on July 25, following a flight lasting 36 minutes and 30 seconds. Off the back of his success, his company’s fortunes soared as a result. He died of a heart attack. Until the 1940s this was farmland and development started at the end of the Second World War. This road and those that it encircles were named after the aviators and their aircraft, in a nod to Heston Aerodrome, which was operational between 1929 and 1947. Heston Air Park was conceived by fellow pilots and aircraft co-owners Nigel Norman and Alan Muntz in 1928, and it was constructed by their new company, Airwork Ltd.
