100 years in 2 days

Blériot XI, Boeing PT-17 Stearman, Douglas DC-2, Chance Vought F4U and Lockheed P-38 L Lightning - the guest list for AirPower09 includes some of the biggest names in aviation history.

In 1909 designer Louis Blériot set a series of records with the Blériot XI, including the first successful crossing of the English Channel, a new endurance record (36 minutes and 55 seconds) as well as the flight airspeed record (74.318 km/h).

Alongside three other racing aircraft, this extraordinary veteran will represent 100 years of air racing history: on June 26 and 27, it will take part in a race along the crowd line at AirPower09, lining up alongside the Boeing PT-17 Stearman, Douglas DC-2 and Chance Vought F4U Corsair - an event which will herald the start of the subsequent Red Bull Air Race Show.

Also causing a sensation at AirPower09, another machine which was way ahead of its time: the Lockheed P-38L Lightning. Constructed in 1944 and lovingly restored by the Flying Bulls, it is the only P-38 in Europe still flying. The American fighter bomber was used as an interceptor and photo-reconnaissance airplane during World War II and brought down more Japanese aircraft on the Pacific Rim than any other fighter. It also proved to be the undoing of author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, who in 1944 went missing on a reconnaissance flight in a P-38.