Grand Prix racing Vanderbilt Cup racing Pioneering aviator Air speed record for 5 km
Hubert Le Blon (21 March 1874 – 2 April 1910) was a French automobilist and pioneer aviator. He drove a steam-powered Gardner-Serpollet motorcar in the early 1900s, and then switched to Hotchkiss for both the world's first Grand Prix at Le Mans in France and the inaugural Targa Florio in Sicily. At the Vanderbilt Cup races on Long Island he competed for the US driving a Thomas.[1][2]
Within weeks of setting a new aviation speed record in Egypt, he died during an exhibition flight at San Sebastián, Spain. His first aircraft design, the "Humber monoplane (Le Blon type)", was displayed at the Olympia Aero Exhibition in 1910.[1][2]
His wife, Madame Motann Le Blon, shared his passion for motoring, regularly accompanying him as riding mechanic in his races, and watching during his flying exploits.[4] Public statements in 1903 declared: "Madame Le Blon of Paris, has accompanied her husband on most of his record runs. [She] ... has entered her new Serpollet for the Nice races, in the coming spring, and hopes to travel at ninety miles per hour thereon."[5][6]
The 1906 Vanderbilt Cup at Long Island. Hubert Le Blon in an oversteeringThomas, the first car to start, encounters a dog.Hubert and Mme Le Blon at the 1906 Targa Florio driving a Hotchkiss 35 hpHubert and Mme Le Blon with their Serpollet "Oeuf de Pâques" (Easter egg) at the Gaillon Hill climb in 1902
Le Blon raced a Gardner-Serpollet steam car and set several speed records over a five-year period.[1] Some sources report that in 1901 he drove the Gardner-Serpollet steamer to seventh place in the Paris-Berlin trail, (possibly based on an erroneous claim in his obituary in the New York Times,[4][9] whilst others, including contemporaneous newspapers have no mention of him competing.[10][11][12]).
In the 1902 Paris Grand Prix (or Paris-Arras-Paris[4]) he finished 13th in the same Gardner-Serpollet steamer.
In 1903 Paris-Madrid race he was classified 17th in his Serpollet (after 6 hours 44 minutes 15 seconds) when the race was stopped by the police at Bordeaux due to the number of fatalities.[4][13] (This race is sometimes known by its post-facto rename of VIII Grand Prix de l'A.C.F.)[13]
In 1904 he was fifth in the Circuit des Ardennes held at Bastogne circuit, in a Hotchkiss.[4] He participated at the Arras Speed Trials in a Serpollet steamer.[14]
In 1905 he was hired to race French Hotchkiss and Panhard cars, and in several races his wife acted as his riding mechanic.[1]
In 1906 he was selected by the Thomas Motor Company to race as an unpaid amateur at the American Elimination Trial for the Vanderbilt Cup, having been an employee of the French branch of E. R. Thomas Motor Co. His second place qualified for the five-car American Team, but at the main Vanderbilt Cup race he only completed nine laps. His riding mechanic was Marius Amiel.[1][15]
1910 Humber monoplane (Le Blon Type) - designed by Hubert Le Blon. Exhibited at the 1910 Olympia Aero Exhibition.
By 1909, like many other racers of the era, Le Blon became fascinated by aviation. He enrolled at the pilot training school of pioneering French aviator Léon Delagrange, learning to fly the Bleriot XI monoplane. Delagrange died three months before Le Blon, in an accident similar to the one that would kill Le Blon.[2][16]
Hubert Le Blon flying a Bleriot XI at San Sebastián, Spain, March 1910
In 1909 Le Blon competed at the Spa aviation meeting in September–October before travelling to Doncaster, England, where he was the "first aviator to take-off at the first ever Air Show in Great Britain", held at the venue of the St. Leger Stakes. He rapidly became "as well known as Bleriot" for his skilled, daring and courageous flying, winning the Bradford Cup for the fastest ten laps of the course in his Blériot monoplane. He further endeared himself to the public on 25 October when he after taking off in very strong winds was hurled at the crowds by a strong gust, but manoeuvred to skim over the crowd, stall and then crash-land in a crowd-free area.[2][3][4][16]
Le Blon's first aircraft design, the Humber monoplane (Le Blon type), was displayed at the Aero Exhibition at Olympia, London in 1910. Although the project showed creative ingenuity – he planned to sit astride it like a horse – the death of Le Blon led to its termination.[17]
Death
Madame Motan Le Blon - Wife and riding mechanic of Hubert Le Blon.
Le Blon drowned in a crash landing into the sea on 2 April 1910 while flying in stormy weather at Ondarreta Beach, San Sebastián, Spain, where he had been performing exhibition flights since 27 March. He was reportedly circling the Royal Palace of Miramar at about 140 feet when the Anzani engine failed; as he attempted to glide back to land, a wing's wire "stay" snapped whereupon the plane flipped and crashed into the sea upside down,[2][4] possibly colliding with some rocks.[1][4][9] His wife was among the crowd that was watching.[1][4][9]
Le Blon, once famous motorist, was circling Spanish Royal Palace at San Sebastian.
His wife saw him fall.
The Motor failed and Machine Turned Turtle as Frenchman was trying to glide to Earth.
According to official documents the cause of death was "drowning" although his body was injured in the impact. The official cause of the crash was attributed to "fracture of one of the wing stay wires when running into a gust of wind".[2]
At his funeral in San Sebastián the streets were lined with troops, shops were closed, and thousands followed his coffin to the railway station where it was transported to Paris.[21]
^David Burgess-Wise (1992), The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Automobiles, Seacus, N.J.: Wellfleet Press, p. Alphabetic Encyclopedia - Le Blon Frères, ISBN978-1-55521-808-9
Book A History of Aeronautics by E. Charles Vivian, Book Jungle, 2009, ISBN1438519257.
Magazine "Progress" (Wellington, New Zealand), issue of 1 June 1910, article "Death of Le Blon", page 270, retrieved by website [2].
Magazine Flight, issue of 9 April 1910, retrieved by website [3].
Website The New York Times - Archive, issue 3 April 1910, article "AERONAUT IS DASHED TO DEATH ON ROCKS; Le Blon, Once *Famous Motorist, Was Circling Spanish Royal Palace at San Sebastian.", page [4].
Website Fundación Aérea de la Comunidad Valenciana, Aircraft Recovering - Bleriot XI Project, page [5][permanent dead link].
Website The GEL Motorsport Information Page by Darren Galpin, page [6] and page [7].
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