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Flying back in time
In 1909 Louis Blériot made history when he flew the English Channel on Shell fuel. One hundred years later Swedish pilot Mikael Carlson marked the event in a restored Blériot XI plane, also fuelled by Shell. He talks about this crossing, his passion for aircraft restoration, and the future of flying.
Q You finally flew between Calais and Dover a day later than expected, on Sunday 26 July. How did it feel to fly a Blériot XI 100 years and a day after Blériot himself?
A The French authorities wouldn’t let us take off on the Saturday evening. It was windy, so they closed the specially built grass airstrip. I refused to be beaten so, along with my wife and friends, we dismantled the plane overnight and moved to another airfield for the following day. This time we took off unannounced – and the weather was perfect. It was warm and calm, and I was thinking about Blériot as I flew across the water. For me everything was carefully planned – he didn’t trust his plane but wanted the £1,000 prize money on offer. Finally it was a beautiful flight, and in fact the original crossing was also on a Sunday.
Q I believe Blériot beat your crossing time by one minute?
A No! He took 37 minutes and I was 33 – I circled round the airfield twice and Dover castle, so I could have been even quicker.
Q Could you explain where your passion for flying and restoring aircraft comes from?
A I can’t explain where it comes from – I’ve always had this passion, my whole life, since I was four and played with plastic kits and scale models. I won the world championship for scale modelling when I was just 20. And then I started building full-sized planes.
Q How did you manage to find the two Blériot XI planes you have restored?
A I didn’t search for them – they found me. I heard about the first and bought it from a man in Sweden in 1986. I restored it to fly in 1991 and then I was told about the second. I bought this in the mid-90s but it took me eight years to get hold of the engine. The owners are often not selling for the money but to keep alive the memory of someone in the family.
It is a long process to restore a plane – to gather the information, materials and so on – which is why you need a couple of projects going at the same time so you can keep busy.
Q As a captain of a Boeing 737, can you explain how flying old aircraft differs?
A First of all you shouldn’t compare, as the two are so completely different. With the older planes it is physically hard to fly. It’s like driving a motorbike in the rain, the wind is beating against you all the time, you have to listen to the engine systems, and you’re freezing: you certainly don’t have a coffee-cup holder like in the modern cockpit! It’s a fight: when I flew across the Channel I landed with a face covered in engine oil. It’s all over you after the flight. These aircrafts were designed in a time when the only purpose was to get up and to land in one piece – they were investigating flying. Today you “fly by numbers”. You know the limitations, you know how strong a wind you can fly with. Everything is regulated.
Q And Blériot even crash-landed after his historic flight?
A Yes. The pilots would crash every second day. But that’s how you learn. It’s like when you learn to ride a bicycle – your parents push you away and after five metres you fall over. You have to do it to learn.
Q Which type of flying do you prefer?
A Being an airline captain is a very nice way of living. It’s one of the best jobs you can have. Working with old planes gives so much satisfaction – but it brings very little money, so to survive you need another job.
Q You are quoted as saying the crossing by Blériot is “one of the most important flights ever made”. Why?
A It’s not the flight itself, it’s how and when it was done. Blériot was not alone – there were a few pilots that could have flown. But he actually did it. Hubert Latham had tried a week before, with the Antoinette, and had to land in the Channel. And in those days the whole flight was scary – even with rescue teams out in the water.
Q In fact Blériot couldn’t swim…
A That’s true. It was a risk. He was lucky!
Q What have been the biggest innovations in aviation over the last century?
A Electronics. The aircraft and technology we had in 1918 were used up until the next war – I'm sorry to say it but war is the mother of invention. In World War Two we saw the jet engine and electronics come in. Today you can’t fly without electronics – there are hundreds of systems fitted to aircraft for navigation, communication and system management. The “race for space” in the 1960s-70s saw technological developments that opened up today’s flying.
Q Shell’s supplied fuel for the first British Airways concorde flight and for first the non-stop Qantas flight from London to Australia. How has fuel development over the last century supported aircraft development?
A On Sunday my plane flew on Shell Avgas 100LL. Shell provided me with 40 litres of fuel and I used 13 litres to cross the Channel. The engine was designed in 1909 and would have used pure gasoline. It can take modern fuel, but that is really for the modern engine – the developments of both have run in parallel. Fuel introduced by Shell in the 1930s in the United States helped early ignitions and meant pilots could produce more power and speed – giving the allies a great advantage in World War Two.
Q Just last year we saw the first flight of an Airbus A380 fuelled by a mix of classic jet fuel and jet fuel derived from GTL (gas to liquid) fuel from natural gas. How do you see the future of flying?
A We are moving more towards turbo engines but we will still have a lot of piston engines. My concern in the future is for classic aircraft – these days fuel has more and more alcohol in it. I can go to the nearest gas station and buy car fuel for my aircraft, but we shouldn’t stop the type of fuel planes like Spitfires and other World War Two aircraft need.
Q As a commercial pilot, have you seen many changes?
A The whole industry is changing – we need to wait a couple of years to see what will happen. I’ve always flown a Boeing 737 and in ten or 15 years it hasn’t really changed – but Airbus is the next generation.
Q Do you have any more special flights lined up?
A I’m very lucky to have these two Blériots. I think it’s really important to show young people that these aircrafts are still flying, that they’re not dead in museums. And they go three generations back. Young people usually only know what they see on TV and the way to get media interest is for events like the 100-year anniversaries.
Q How much do you think has changed over those three generations?
A It has been the most dynamic century. So much has changed for planes. As well as for boats and for cars. But while many people take for granted seeing old Model T Fords on the road, very few have seen a 100-year old aircraft flying. That’s what I wanted to show. Across Europe next year there will be a lot of centenary celebrations that we will try to join. As for the future, let’s see what Shell can do to continue making history in aviation!
*Mikael Carlson spoke to Charlotte Brookes
