SIMBAD references

In this first paper of a series, we describe our project to calibrate the distance determination method based on early-type binary systems. The final objective is to measure accurate, geometrical distances to galaxies beyond the Magellanic Clouds with a precision of 2%. We start with the analysis of two early-type systems for which we have collected all the required spectroscopic and photometric data. Apart from catalog publications, these systems have not been studied yet, and this is the first time the modeling of light and radial velocity curves is performed for them. From the analysis we obtained precise physical parameters of the components, including the masses measured with a precision of 0.6%-1% and radii measured with a precision of 0.4%-3%. For one system we determined the (V-K) color and estimated the distance using the bolometric flux scaling method (DM = 18.47 ± 0.15 mag), which agrees well with our accurate determination of the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud from late-type giants. For the same system we determined the surface brightness of individual stars using our model, and checked that it is consistent with a recent surface-brightness-color relation. We compared our results with evolution theory models of massive stars and found they agree in general; however, models with higher overshooting values give more consistent results. The age of the system was estimated to range from 11.7 to 13.8 Myr, depending on the model.