Louis Blériot of 1909. Like some of the other prizes offered by the paper, it was widely seen as nothing more than a way to gain cheap publicity: the Paris newspaper "Le Matin" commenting that there was no chance of the prize being won. The English Channel had been crossed by an unmanned hydrogen balloon in 1784 and a manned crossing by Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries followed in 1785. Blériot, who intended to fly across the Channel in his Type XI monoplane, had three rivals for the prize, the most serious being Hubert Latham, a French national of English extraction flying
Rozière balloon Feliu and Green. Four Cameron-R77s made Atlantic crossings, west to east, during September 1992. One was co-piloted by Bertrand Piccard. Australian adventurer Richard Smith and his co-pilot John Wallington made the first balloon voyage across Australia, in another Cameron-R77 Rozière, "Australian Geographic Flyer", on 18 June 1993. Steve Fossett made the first successful Pacific crossing during February 1995. On 27 February 1999, while they were trying to circumnavigate the world by balloon, Colin Prescot and Andy Elson set a new endurance record after flying in a Rozière combined helium and hot air balloon (the "Cable & Wireless" balloon) for 233