Oldest airplane in America still flying is a Bleriot XI similar to Bergdoll plane
For a while, a Bleriot XI, nearly exact to the Bergdoll Bleriot XI airplane profiled in The Bergdoll Boys, at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome (ORA) in New York’s lower Hudson Valley, was the oldest airplane in the world still flying. Now, however, it’s the second oldest still flying in the world and the oldest in America. An image of the ORA’s Bleriot is here.
A 1909 Bleriot XI owned by and still flown at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome near Red Hook, New York.
Red Hook, NY - October 2018. The world's oldest airplane still flying is now home at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in New York State's Hudson Valley. It captured the world title when a similar, but slightly older, airplane in England suffered engine damage and lost its certification for flight.
Update, March 20, 2019. The British Aviation Museum (Charlesworth) which has long held the distinction for the oldest airplane flying contacted me to report that their Bleriot XI, which is only a few months older than the Bleriot XI depicted here, has been re-certified and completed a short flight to regain the record as the oldest airplane flying.
The Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome’s vintage 1909 Bleriot XI was designed and built by Louis Bleriot, the French aviation pioneer who became the first to fly a plane across the English Channel. The ORA Bleriot XI was reportedly donated by Bill Champlin of Laconia, New Hampshire. Champlin said he obtained the airplane from Professor H.H. Coburn, who, as the ORA reports, first saw the airplane in a junkyard when he was a boy. It apparently had crashed during an airshow in Saugus, Massachusetts. It was restored by the ORA to flying condition.
The Bergdoll Bleriot was formerly owned by the ORA but it’s now owned and displayed by the Cradle of Aviation Museum on Long Island, New York. The photograph below is from the Cradle of Aviation’s Facebook. It’s unclear if it depicts the Bergdoll Bleriot or another of the same vintage. In The Bergdoll Boys book, I include details about the flight history of the Bergdoll Bleriot which included flights from the Hempstead Plains airfield near Garden City, Long Island, New York in 1910.
In the early summer of 2018, the ORA’s Bleriot XI briefly became the oldest airplane in the world still flying albeit a maximum of 60 feet off the ground. For a look at the ORA’s Bleriot XI being tested for flight, watch the video below.