Louis Blériot was the first man to fly an aircraft into the UK from abroad. He flew over the English Channel on July 25, 1909 to arrive on the cliffs above Dover in an aircraft of his own design - the Blériot XI - to achieve the world's first flight over a large body of water in a heavier-than-air craft.

Although the Collector had given strict instructions to his staff that any attempt to impose Customs regulations on anyone engaged in 'aerial navigation' would tend only to bring the Department into disrepute, there was a story in the Waterguard that George Camburn, the Preventive Man on hand, interviewed Monsieur Bleriot and as it was the first ever aircraft to arrive from abroad, and therefore not covered by any Official Instructions of the time, the ever adaptable officer decided to issue pratique, treating the aircraft as a private yacht, and the pilot as master and owner. By so doing George Camburn had set the precedent for treating all aircraft as vessels.

That day the Collector Dover wrote to the Commissioners of Customs & Excise ' I have to report that Monsieur Bleriot with his monoplane, successfully crossed the channel from Calais this morning and landed in a meadow on the east side of Dover Castle, about two miles from our watch house shortly after 5am, having occupied 33 minutes in the crossing . . . . . I visited the spot where he landed at 6.30am, and got into conversation with an individual largely interested in the Wright aeroplane, who gave his opinion that although airships (sic) will never come into commercial use, there are great possibilities for them, and I think that a time may come when this Department will have to treat their arrivals seriously, and take steps to ensure that no opportunity be given for Revenue interests to suffer through indiscriminate landings of airships in this country'.