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 ballooning Lewis. The song "Get It Up" from the 1983 New England release Walking Wild is about hot air ballooning. The song "Let Everything Go" by Phil Keaggy (1981) is about hot air ballooning. In "The Wizard of Oz" (1939), the wizard leaves the Emerald City in a gas balloon, not a hot air balloon. In "Around the World in Eighty Days" a gas balloon, not a hot air balloon, (featured on the movie poster) is used to cross the Pyrenees. In "Enduring Love" (2004), a hot air balloon is involved in a tragic accident during the opening scene. In "The