New Addition: Restored Bleriot XI

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Wings ripped and drooping, this Bleriot XI, probably built from an Ideal kit in the mid-1920s, was pulled out of someone’s attic and put on the auction block in the mid-1990s. There the wife of John J. Phillips saw it, purchased it, and brought it home to her husband as a project.  John then proceeded to take the time to study the model before beginning a month-long restoration project.

A Bleriot XI with ripped and unsupported wings and a mutilated tail sits on white butcher paper.
John J. Phillips took this photograph of the Bleriot XI before he began its restoration. Credit: National Model Aviation Museum, Catalog file of 2014.47, photo by John J. Phillips.

This process included re-making the wings entirely based on templates he made from the original, cleaning and stabilizing the wood, and carving a pilot dummy.

John J. Phillips coated the new wings in a coat of yellow shellac to give the wings an aged look.
The restored Bleriot XI sits next to the mess of the original wings. Credit: National Model Aviation Museum, Catalog file of 2014.47, photo by John J. Phillips.

In the end, the model probably looks better than it did when first built.

The restored Bleriot looks like new and excately matches the profile view shown in an open book behind the model.
The completed, restored Bleriot XI sits in front one of the sources John J. Phillips used during the project. Credit: National Model Aviation Museum, Catalog file of 2014.47, photo by John J. Phillips.

The Bleriot was recently donated to the museum as a bequest of John J. Phillips.  Thank you, John, for helping to grow the museum’s collection.

The Bleriot XI on the processing table at the museum. A helicopter kit and other models can be seen in the background.
The Bleriot XI, wing templates and originals wings on the processing table at the National Model Aviation Museum.
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