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
Hot Air Balloon (rock opera) as an April Fool's joke. However, "Hot Air Balloon" lyrics were sung during parts of "Aquatic Ape". In addition, the entire second act (and Eulogy) were played on February 2, 1999. An unemployed wayward inventor who bounced aimlessly from idea to idea, until he invented the world's first aircraft, the hot air balloon. He was convinced by Morris Mulberry that the idea could be profitable and that the two of them should start a service shuttling people across the sea in hot air balloons. The business, called Hot Air Balloon Traveling, became successful and attracted the attention of Manilla Trane,