List of English Channel crossings by air

This is a list of notable flights across the English Channel.

First attempts

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)	combination hydrogen / hot-air balloon	Boulogne-Sur-Mer, France —	Balloon blown back over French soil and crashed, both killed
25 July 1909	First person to cross the channel in a heavier-than-air aircraft	Louis Blériot (France)	Blériot XI	Calais Dover	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[2]	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
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.
1915	First Airship crossing		A Zeppelin		Part of Germany's War effort against Britain and discontinued in 1918
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.[3]
19 June 1931	First crossing in a glider	Lissant Beardmore (UK)		Aero-tow from Lympne to an altitude of 14,000 feet (4,300 m) Saint-Inglevert Airfield, Pas-de-Calais.[4]
6 September 1949	First helicopter crossing	Helmut Gerstenhauer	Focke-Achgelis Fa 223	Cherbourg RAF Beaulieu	Accompanied by two Royal Air Force observers
12 June 1979	First human-powered aircraft to cross the Channel	Bryan Allen (US)	Gossamer Albatross		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[5]	Stephen Ptacek	Solar Challenger		Solar-powered
1981	First crossing by hybrid energy balloon[6]	Julian Nott			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[7]
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 [8]
28 May 2010	First crossing by helium balloon cluster	Jonathan Trappe (US)			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.[9]
9 July 2015	First crossing by battery-powered electric aircraft[10][11][12]	Hugues Duval	Colomban Cri-cri		Air-launched
9 July 2015	First battery-powered electric aircraft to takeoff and fly over the Channel[11][12]	Didier Esteyne	Airbus E-Fan
16 February 2016	First Quadcopter Drone to fly across the Channel in a single flight.[13]	Richard Gill	Enduro 1	Launch - Wissant Land - 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.

References

1. "Blanchard, Jean-Pierre-François." Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
2. Humphreys, Roy (2001). Kent Aviation, a Century of Flight. Stroud: Sutton Publishing. p. 189. ISBN 0-7509-2790-9.
3. "Channel Flight By Autogiro. Spanish Airman's Success." The Times (London). Wednesday, 19 September 1928. (45002), col F, p. 14.
4. "Channel Crossed by Glider." The Times (London). Saturday, 20 June 1931. (45854), col F, p. 12.
5. http://www.si.edu/Exhibitions/Details/The-Solar-Challenger-3493
6. Solar Balloon Takes Flight Over England
7. "Pilot completes jetpack challenge". London: BBC. 26 September 2008. Retrieved 1 November 2008.
8. "Man of La Manche". CAFE Foundation. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
9. American crosses Channel carried by helium balloons, The Guardian. Retrieved 28 May 2010
10. "Did Duwal Beat Airbus Across the Channel?". AVweb. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
11. Bertorelli, Paul. "Airbus' Asterisked Record". AVweb. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
12. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/engineering/11729838/Airbus-E-Fan-2.0-set-to-recreate-aviation-history-with-cross-Channel-flight-only-this-time-its-electric.html
13. "British firm fly quadcopter over Channel for first time (Wired UK)". Wired UK. Retrieved 2016-03-19.

External links

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