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
Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta The Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta is an annual event that occurs between January and February in Clark Freeport Zone, Angeles City, Pampanga. It features multicolored hot air balloons with more than a hundred balloon pilots from around the world. This four-day hot air balloon event is the biggest and longest-running aviation sports event in the Philippines. The festival also features a number of events in skydiving, flag jumps, micro light and rocketry demonstrations, small plane fly-bys and fly-ins, remote-control airplane and helicopter flying exhibitions, freestyle aerobatics, precision maneuvers, light airplane balloon bursting,