This is a list of notable flights across the English Channel.
Date | Crossing | Participant(s) | Aircraft | Departure point Arrival point | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
7 January 1785 [1] | First crossing by air | Jean Pierre François Blanchard (France) John Jeffries (US) | balloon | Dover, England Calais, France | — |
15 June 1785 | First air crash | Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier (France) Pierre Romain (France) | Rozière balloon: combination hydrogen & hot-air balloon | Boulogne-Sur-Mer, France — | Balloon blown back over French soil and crashed, both killed. |
9 September 1883 | First E-W crossing | François Lhoste | Ville-de-Boulogne gas balloon | Boulogne, France Ruckinge, Kent | Lhoste had made five previous attempts, and succeeded on the sixth. [2] [3] |
30 September 1906 | First Gordon Bennett Cup Winner | Frank P. Lahm, Henry Blanchard Hersey (the United States of America) | Gas balloon | Tuileries, Paris Fylingdales, Yorkshire | Gas balloon traveled 641 km in 22 hours and 15 minutes [4] [5] |
25 July 1909 | First person to cross the channel in a heavier-than-air aircraft | Louis Blériot (France) | Blériot XI | Calais, France Dover, England | Encouraged by £1000 prize offered by the Daily Mail for first successful flight across the Channel. Flight time 37 minutes. |
2 June 1910 | First person to make a double crossing of the Channel in a heavier-than-air aircraft [6] | Charles Stewart Rolls (UK) | Short Wright biplane | Swingfield Downs, Kent Sangatte, France | — |
Sangatte Eastchurch, Kent | |||||
23 August 1910 | First aircraft flight with passengers | John Moisant (US) | Blériot XI | Calais, France Deal, England | Passengers were mechanic Albert Fileux and Moisant's cat. |
4 November 1910 | First airship crossing | Ernest Willows (UK) Frank Goodden (UK) | City of Cardiff airship | Wormwood Scrubs, London, England | Departed at 3:25pm on 4 November 1910. Night-time crossing, landed at 2:00am on 5 November 1910. Arrived at Paris on 28 December 1910. [7] |
16 April 1912 | First woman to fly across the Channel | Harriet Quimby (US) | Blériot XI | Dover A beach near Neufchâtel-Hardelot, France | Flight time 59 minutes. Her accomplishment did not receive much media attention, as the RMS Titanic sank the evening before. |
18 September 1928 | First flight across the Channel by autogyro | Juan de la Cierva (SPA) | Cierva C.8 | Achieved as part of the first flight by autogyro between London and Paris. [8] | |
19 June 1931 | First crossing in a glider | Lissant Beardmore (UK) | RRG Professor glider | Aero-tow from Lympne to an altitude of 14,000 feet (4,300 m) Saint-Inglevert Airfield, Pas-de-Calais. [9] | |
6 September 1945 | First helicopter crossing | Helmut Gerstenhauer (Germany) Flt Lt. Dennis (UK) Flt. Lt. Morris (UK) | Focke-Achgelis Fa 223 | Cherbourg, France RAF Beaulieu, England | Helicopter was piloted by Gerstenhauer, with two Royal Air Force officers acting as observers. [10] |
13 April 1963 | First crossing by hot air balloon | Don Piccard & Ed Yost (US) | “Channel Champ” [11] [12] | Rye, England Gravelines, France | First to cross the English Channel in a hot air balloon. [12] |
9 May 1978 | First powered hang-glider to cross the Channel | David Cook (UK) | Volmer VJ-23E | Walmer, England Calais, France | Powered by a 9 hp (6.6 kW) McCulloch 101 engine. [13] Aircraft is on display at the Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester. [14] |
12 June 1979 | First human-powered aircraft to cross the Channel | Bryan Allen (US) | Gossamer Albatross | Folkstone, England Cap Gris Nez, France | Won a £100,000 Kremer Prize; Allen pedalled for three hours to propel the 55-pound (25 kg) aircraft |
7 July 1981 | First crossing by electric aircraft [15] | Stephen Ptacek (US) | Solar Challenger | Pontoise Aerodrome, France RAF Manston, England | Solar-powered |
22 August 1981 | First crossing by hybrid energy balloon [16] | Julian Nott (UK) | G-BAVU (aircraft registration number) | North-west of Dover, England Tournehem-sur-la-Hem, France [17] | Solar-powered lift |
31 July 2003 | Crossing in a 20-mile (32 km) long freefall | Felix Baumgartner (Austria) | wingsuit and a carbon fibre wing | ||
26 September 2008 | First crossing with a jetpack | Yves Rossy (Switzerland) | Crossing completed in less than ten minutes [18] | ||
6 August 2009 | First crossing with an electric driven aircraft with onboard energy | Gerard Thevenot | Gerard Thevenot crossed the channel with his HYNOV, an electric driven trike aircraft with hydrogen as source of energy [19] | ||
28 May 2010 | First crossing by helium balloon cluster | Jonathan Trappe (US) | The Channel Cluster | Challock, Kent, England Les Moëres, France | Completed in 4 hours. He crossed the Channel dangling beneath a cloud of coloured helium balloons and controlled his altitude by cutting the balloons free one by one with a pair of scissors. [20] [21] |
9 July 2015 | First crossing by battery-powered electric aircraft [22] [23] [24] | Hugues Duval | Colomban Cri-cri | Air-launched | |
9 July 2015 | First battery-powered electric aircraft to takeoff and fly over the Channel [23] [24] | Didier Esteyne | Airbus E-Fan | ||
16 February 2016 | First quadcopter drone to fly across the Channel in a single flight. [25] | Richard Gill | Enduro 1 | Wissant, France Shakespeare Beach, Dover | Drone launched from beach in France and flew back to UK. The total flight time was 78 minutes at an average speed of about 10 m/s. The flight was conducted with the approval of the French DGAC and British CAA. |
14 June 2017 | First crossing by flying car. [26] | Bruno Vezzoli, Jérôme Dauffy | Pégase Mark II | Ambleteuse, France East Studdal, near Dover | Pegase developed by Vaylon company took off from France and flew to UK. Total flight time: 85 minutes Distance 72,5 km which 33,3 km over the channel. |
On July 2, 1982, Larry Walters made a 45-minute flight in a homemade aerostat made of an ordinary lawn chair and 42 helium-filled weather balloons. The aircraft rose to an altitude of about 16,000 feet (4,900 m), drifted from the point of liftoff in San Pedro, California, and entered controlled airspace near Long Beach Airport. During the final descent, the aircraft became entangled in power lines, but Walters was able to climb down safely. The flight attracted worldwide media attention and inspired a movie, a musical and numerous imitators.
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Double Eagle II, piloted by Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman, became the first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean when it landed on 17 August 1978 in Miserey near Paris, 137 hours and 6 minutes after leaving Presque Isle, Maine.
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