Bleriot construction Progress Reports from Chad and Betty Wille

It was discovered (through Gary Karner) that Chad and Betty Wille have recently undertaken the task of constructing a 50 hp GNOME BLERIOT XI.  They are now making regular progress reports on this project:

7/25/02 (exactly 93 years since the day that Bleriot made the crossing!)

We are planning to use the XI bis airfoil and have cleaned shop space to begin the fuselage construction. I will begin tearing down the engine for inspection just as soon as Gary Karner's original Anzani overhaul is completed here. Last month Betty and I ran the original XI at Rhinebeck.

(Note: For more information about the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome, visit: http://www.oldrhinebeck.org/)

8/18/02:

We now have 4 ash longerons built per the Rozendaal plans and are working on carving and assembling the poplar cross members in the jig.  We are making stainless steel U bolts and bracing with stainless steel music wire which will approximate the nickel plated finish of the original hardware and allow us to forego painting.  The disassembly of the Gnome Omega engine continues and we have just acquired an early Jaeger tachometer to go with it.

Photos will be up on our website in about 2 weeks at http://members.ll.net/stcroix/ 

2/19/03:

I just finished the overhaul on Gary's Anzani engine and thought you might like to see a photo.  We had to machine a lot of missing internal parts from scratch.  A set of detailed photos will be on my website soon.  I still have to build a stand and the propeller and then will run it here before bringing it to Brodhead in the spring.