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U.S. man balloons across English Channel
ASHFORD, England, (UPI) -- A U.S. man has become the first person to successfully cross over the English Channel on a cluster balloon flight.
Jonathan Trappe, 36, fastened 55 "chloroprene cloudbuster" balloons to a wicker chair and set off from the Kent Gliding Club near Ashford, England at 5 a.m. Friday and landed just after 8 a.m. in Dunkirk, France, The Times in London reported Friday.
"Isn't it everyone's dream?" Trappe said after his flight. "Grabbing on to toy balloons and flying off into open space?"
"The channel is such an iconic challenge and has called to aviators for generations. The English Channel, the White Cliffs of Dover -- I'm American and it even calls to me," he said.
Trappe previously set a record for longest free-floating balloon flight when he traveled 109 miles across the skies of North Carolina last month.
ASHFORD, England, (UPI) -- A U.S. man has become the first person to successfully cross over the English Channel on a cluster balloon flight.
Jonathan Trappe, 36, fastened 55 "chloroprene cloudbuster" balloons to a wicker chair and set off from the Kent Gliding Club near Ashford, England at 5 a.m. Friday and landed just after 8 a.m. in Dunkirk, France, The Times in London reported Friday.
"Isn't it everyone's dream?" Trappe said after his flight. "Grabbing on to toy balloons and flying off into open space?"
"The channel is such an iconic challenge and has called to aviators for generations. The English Channel, the White Cliffs of Dover -- I'm American and it even calls to me," he said.
Trappe previously set a record for longest free-floating balloon flight when he traveled 109 miles across the skies of North Carolina last month.