English Channel Dover and Boulogne but later also Ramsgate (Pegwell Bay) to Calais. The journey time Dover to Boulogne was roughly 35 minutes, with six trips per day at peak times. The fastest crossing of the English Channel by a commercial car-carrying hovercraft was 22 minutes, recorded by the "Princess Anne" MCH SR-N4 Mk3 on 14 September 1995, The first aircraft to cross the Channel was a balloon in 1785, piloted by Jean Pierre François Blanchard (France) and John Jeffries (US). Louis Blériot (France) piloted the first airplane to cross in 1909. The sport of Channel swimming traces its origins to the
Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta ultra-light flying formation and flour bomb dropping, kite-making and choreographed kite-flying, hi-start launch gliding, control-line aircraft flying, pylon racing, banner towing, aero-modeling symposium and races between ultra lights and motorcycles. An estimated 100,000 visitors locally and from around the world come in to see this event. In 1994, three years after the devastating effects of the Mount Pinatubo eruption, Tourism Secretary Mina Gabor, together with Korean businessman and hot-air balloon pilot, Mr. Sung Kee Paik, and British Airways General Manager, Mr. John Emery, and the German aviation enthusiast Max Motschmann engineered the first ever Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta