Blériot

Louis Blériot founded his aeronautical research business at Courbevoie in March 1909 after his early experiments and partnership with Gabriel Voisin. His July 1909 flight across the English Channel made both pilot and name internationally famous, while Blériot Aéronautique grew through civil and military aircraft and later operated at Suresnes. The abrupt loss of wartime orders after the 1918 Armistice prompted diversification into fishing boats, motorcycles and light road vehicles. A motorcycle was promoted at the October 1919 Paris Motor Show and entered limited manufacture around 1920–23, including the 500 cc vertical-twin B20 intended for sidecar use. In 1921 the company presented a small French cyclecar powered by a 750 cc two-cylinder two-stroke engine driving through a propeller shaft. No reliable type name, production quantity or continuing model sequence survives, so the catalog identifies it descriptively as the 750 cc Cyclecar and restricts its production evidence to 1921. It must not be confused with Blériot-Whippet: that British 997 cc Blackburne-powered cyclecar was designed by Herbert Jones and W. D. Marchant and produced by Air Navigation & Engineering at Blériot's former Addlestone aircraft works. Blériot Aéronautique became a limited company in 1922, used both Blériot and SPAD aircraft identities, and was absorbed into the French nationalized SNCASO grouping in 1936. Aircraft, motorcycles, automobile lamps, boats and land yachts remain in the history but outside this automobile model list; the sole qualifying French car program is the 1921 cyclecar.

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