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) |
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. |
References
- ^ "Blanchard, Jean-Pierre-François." Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
- ^ "LA COMMÉMORATION DU CENTENAIRE DE L'AÉROSTATION À BOULOGNE-SUR-MER EN 1883". Renaissance du vieux Boulogne (in French). 31 January 2016. Archived from the original on 1 October 2023. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
- ^ "Balloons: Engineless Flight 1836 - 1913". Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines. Archived from the original on 6 February 2019. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
- ^ Kenny, Kimberly A. (2007). Canton's Pioneers in Flight. Arcadia. pp. 15–16. ISBN 978-0-7385-2522-8.
- ^ Stekel, Peter. "Don Piccard 50 Years of Ballooning Memories" (PDF). www.FAI.org. FAI.org. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
- ^ Humphreys, Roy (2001). Kent Aviation, a Century of Flight. Stroud: Sutton Publishing. p. 189. ISBN 0-7509-2790-9.
- ^ "Willows Airship №3 1910". Rosebud's WWI and Early Aviation Image Archive. 20 November 2008. Archived from the original on 20 November 2008. Retrieved 6 September 2020.
- ^ "Channel Flight By Autogiro. Spanish Airman's Success". The Times. No. 45002. London. 19 September 1928. col F, p. 14.
- ^ "Channel Crossed by Glider". The Times. No. 45854. London. 20 June 1931. col F, p. 12.
- ^ Coates, Steve; Carbonel, Jean-Christophe (2002). Helicopters of the Third Reich. Crowborough, UK: Classic Publications Ltd. p. 184. ISBN 1-903223-24-5.
- ^ "Ed Yost – Aviator, Inventor, and "Father of Modern Day Hot-Air Balloon" Dies". WebWire. 28 May 2007. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 31 October 2007.
- ^ a b Associated Press. "Record Balloon Flight Made By Americans". Gadsden Times, April 14, 1963, p. 1. Retrieved on May 29, 2013.
- ^ Cook, David (2007). Flying from my mind: Innovative and record-breaking microlight and aircraft designs. Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK: Pen & Sword. p. 8. ISBN 9781844155880.
- ^ Pollard, Lewis (9 May 2018). "On this day: Crossing the English Channel in a hang-glider". Manchester Science Museum. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
- ^ "The Solar Challenger | Exhibitions | Smithsonian". www.si.edu. Archived from the original on 26 September 2013.
- ^ Solar Balloon Takes Flight Over England
- ^ "HISTORY OF SOLAR BALLOONING". aerocene.org. Aerocene. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
- ^ "Pilot completes jetpack challenge". London: BBC. 26 September 2008. Retrieved 1 November 2008.
- ^ "Man of La Manche". CAFE Foundation. Archived from the original on 13 July 2015. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
- ^ American crosses Channel carried by helium balloons, The Guardian. Retrieved 28 May 2010
- ^ Karpel, Mark (August 2010). "The Drifters of Wind, Helium, and Hope" (PDF). Air & Space. Washington, DC, USA: Smithsonian Enterprises. pp. 24–31. ISSN 0886-2257. Retrieved 1 April 2023.
- ^ "Did Duval Beat Airbus Across the Channel?". AVweb. 10 July 2015. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
- ^ a b Bertorelli, Paul (9 July 2015). "Airbus' Asterisked Record". AVweb. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
- ^ a b "French pilot in tiny one-seater beats Airbus to first electric cross-Channel flight".
- ^ "British firm fly quadcopter over Channel for first time (Wired UK)". Wired UK. Retrieved 19 March 2016.
- ^ Paris, Charles Bremner. "Frenchman flies a car to Dover".