{"id":64626,"date":"2022-12-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/64626\/historical-snapshot-the-first-christmas-flight-to-beirut"},"modified":"2023-05-19T14:18:22","modified_gmt":"2023-05-19T14:18:22","slug":"historical-snapshot-the-first-christmas-flight-to-beirut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/64626\/historical-snapshot-the-first-christmas-flight-to-beirut\/","title":{"rendered":"Historical Snapshot: The First Christmas Flight to Beirut"},"content":{"rendered":"Have you ever wondered about the first plane to come to Lebanon? Does the name Jules V\u00e9drines ring any bells? The history of the first jet to fly into this country is quite a captivating one, combining a mixture of imperial intrigue, an ambitious pilot, and Christmas to bring a mechanical bird down onto Beirut\u2019s pastures.<br \/>  <br \/>  On the 25th of December 1913, just one year before World War I would kick off and forever change the world, a sole pilot by the name of Jules V\u00e9drines undertook an ambitious voyage, attempting to take a Bl\u00e9riot monoplane from Paris to Cairo. Born in 1881, V\u00e9drines had been flying for a while before this and was known for feats such as winning the 1911 Paris-Madrid air race, being the first person to fly over 160 km\/h, being the first person to land a plane on a roof, and often dropping things from the sky (leaflets, violets, flags, etc.).<br \/>  <br \/>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/64626.png\"> <br \/>  <br \/>  Before he undertook the trip from Paris to Ciaro, V\u00e9drines attempted to run for a seat in the French Chamber of Deputies, running as the Socialist candidate for Limoux. He was unfortunately defeated. Nevertheless, V\u00e9drines did not let that stop his political ambitions. His flight from Paris to Cairo was part of a larger aviators\u2019 demand to allow people to fly wherever they pleased, regardless of national borders.  <br \/>  <br \/>  Thus, V\u00e9drines got on to his monoplane and sailed across Europe\u2019s stormy skies. His plane was 6.5 meters in length, 9.5 meters in wingspan, and 430 kg in gross weight. It was powered by one Gnome Omega 7-cylinder air-cooled rotary piston engine and had a supposed maximum speed of 111 km\/h.<br \/>  <br \/>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/64626-1.png\"> <br \/>  <br \/>  V\u00e9drines\u2019 first obstacle appeared early into his journey, as German authorities refused to allow him access to the country\u2019s airspace. He was stopped at an airfield in Nancy to prevent this from happening. However, V\u00e9drines would then deploy a simple trick, pretending to go west until he was out of sight of the airfield before switching east and flying over Germany.<br \/>  <br \/>  He proceeded to Prague but was also tried in absentia by the German government and sentenced to a year in prison. After Prague, the French pilot headed to Istanbul, where he earned the Sultan\u2019s good graces by dropping a flag on the imperial palace. From there, his next stop would be Beirut.<br \/>  <br \/>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/64626-2.png\"> <br \/>  <br \/>  During his trip over the \u201choly land,\u201d contemporary journalists claimed he flew at a height of over 10,000 feet and at one time did a whole 400 mile journey without refueling. During this journey, he would land in Lebanon on exactly Christmas day, bringing the first sight of an airplane for many local residents. Beirut was a pit stop for V\u00e9drines, after which he would land in Jaffa on December 27, and Cairo on December 29. <br \/>  <br \/>  Little details are available about V\u00e9drines&#8217; time in the country. It is even unclear where V\u00e9drines had exactly landed, with some sources saying Tripoli and others Karantina. However, what is sure is that V\u00e9drines made aviation history in the country and made December 25th a memorable date for more than one reason. <br \/>  <br \/>  We reached out to Santa for comment about V\u00e9drines&#8217; intrusion into his Christmas sky but unfortunately have not yet received a reply.    <figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"250\" height=\"174\" data-id=\"425123\" src=\"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-7-250x174.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-425123\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-7-250x174.png 250w, https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-7-600x418.png 600w, https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-7-1024x714.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-7-768x536.png 768w, https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-7-1536x1071.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-7.png 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/figure><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"250\" height=\"159\" data-id=\"425125\" src=\"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-8-250x159.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-425125\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-8-250x159.png 250w, https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-8.png 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/figure><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"250\" height=\"176\" data-id=\"425127\" src=\"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-9-250x176.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-425127\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-9-250x176.png 250w, https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-9-600x423.png 600w, https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-9-1024x722.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-9-768x541.png 768w, https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-9-1536x1083.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-9-2048x1444.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/figure><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"250\" height=\"176\" data-id=\"425129\" src=\"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-10-250x176.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-425129\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-10-250x176.png 250w, https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-10-600x423.png 600w, https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-10-1024x722.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-10-768x541.png 768w, https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-10-1536x1083.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-10-2048x1444.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/figure><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"250\" height=\"171\" data-id=\"425131\" src=\"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-11-250x171.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-425131\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-11-250x171.png 250w, https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-11-600x410.png 600w, https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-11-1024x699.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-11-768x525.png 768w, https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-11-1536x1049.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-11.png 1748w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/figure><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"250\" height=\"159\" data-id=\"425133\" src=\"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-12-250x159.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-425133\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-12-250x159.png 250w, https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-12-600x383.png 600w, https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-12.png 668w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/figure><\/figure>    ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever wondered about the first plane to come to Lebanon? Does the name Jules V\u00e9drines ring any bells? The history of the first jet to fly into this country is quite a captivating one, combining a mixture of imperial intrigue, an ambitious pilot, and Christmas to bring a mechanical bird down onto Beirut\u2019s pastures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":425135,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_preview_accessed":0,"footnotes":""},"tags":[1094],"media-embed-type":[],"class_list":["post-64626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-historicalsnapshot"],"authorship":[153],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Historical Snapshot: The First Christmas Flight to Beirut<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Have you ever wondered about the first plane to come to Lebanon? Does the name Jules V\u00e9drines ring any bells? The history of the first jet to fly into this country is quite a captivating one, combining a mixture of imperial intrigue, an ambitious pilot, and Christmas to bring a mechanical bird down onto Beirut\u2019s pastures.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/64626\/historical-snapshot-the-first-christmas-flight-to-beirut\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Historical Snapshot: The First Christmas Flight to Beirut\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Have you ever wondered about the first plane to come to Lebanon? Does the name Jules V\u00e9drines ring any bells? The history of the first jet to fly into this country is quite a captivating one, combining a mixture of imperial intrigue, an ambitious pilot, and Christmas to bring a mechanical bird down onto Beirut\u2019s pastures.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/64626\/historical-snapshot-the-first-christmas-flight-to-beirut\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beirut.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/beirutcityguide\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-12-22T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-05-19T14:18:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/64626-13-1024x705.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"705\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lama Hajj\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@beirutcityguide\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@beirutcityguide\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lama Hajj\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/en\\\/64626\\\/historical-snapshot-the-first-christmas-flight-to-beirut\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/en\\\/64626\\\/historical-snapshot-the-first-christmas-flight-to-beirut\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lama Hajj\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/ar\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/97c22b1acf96bb062cb725fb93718ec7\"},\"headline\":\"Historical Snapshot: The First Christmas Flight to Beirut\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-12-22T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-19T14:18:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/en\\\/64626\\\/historical-snapshot-the-first-christmas-flight-to-beirut\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":554,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/ar\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/en\\\/64626\\\/historical-snapshot-the-first-christmas-flight-to-beirut\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/04\\\/64626-13.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Historical Snapshot\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Blog\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/en\\\/64626\\\/historical-snapshot-the-first-christmas-flight-to-beirut\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/en\\\/64626\\\/historical-snapshot-the-first-christmas-flight-to-beirut\\\/\",\"name\":\"Historical Snapshot: The First Christmas Flight to Beirut\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/ar\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/en\\\/64626\\\/historical-snapshot-the-first-christmas-flight-to-beirut\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/en\\\/64626\\\/historical-snapshot-the-first-christmas-flight-to-beirut\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.beirut.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/04\\\/64626-13.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-12-22T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-19T14:18:22+00:00\",\"description\":\"Have you ever wondered about the first plane to come to Lebanon? 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