File:Mock-up Bleriot XI – Texas Air Museum. 23-3-2017 (41194811031).jpg

This is a full scale mock-up of a Bleriot XI flown by Katherine Stinsons aviation school, based here before WW1. Stinson was the fourth woman in the United States to obtain a pilots certificate, being so good that she first flew alone after only four hours of instruction. Moving to San Antonio for the better flying weather, she and her sister Majorie started an aviation school giving flying instruction. In 1915 she became the first woman to perform a loop and in 1917 she set a non-stop distance record by flying from San Francisco to San Diego. She also inspired her brothers to later form the well known Stinson Aeroplane Company. The Bleriot this replica represents was used by the school and when sold in 1915 the price was “one city lot, one Chalmers automobile and an unknown amount of cash.” Stinson Field was named in the family’s honour and is now the second oldest general aviation airport in the United States. The mock-up, which perhaps suffers which an over enthusiastic wing pitch, is on display in the Texas Air Museum, Stinson Field, San Antonio, Texas, United States.