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
Hot air ballooning in Luxor Hot air ballooning in Luxor Hot air ballooning in Luxor is an aspect of the Egyptian tourist industry, tour companies offer rides in hot air balloons to tourists who enjoy magnificent views of ancient Thebes, the temple complexes of Karnak and Luxor, the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens. A series of hot air balloon accidents have called the industry's safety record into question. Companies began offering hot air balloon rides to tourists in Luxor in the early 1990s. The balloon rides are an important part of Egypt's tourism industry. Following a 2009 crash, balloon flights