A 34-year-old Austrian mechanic became the first person ever to fly across the English Channel without the benefit of an aircraft, gliding from England to France wearing only a specially-designed suit. Skydiver Felix Baumgartner started his unusual journey from a point some 9,000 metres (30,000 feet) over the English port of Dover at 6:09 am (0409 GMT), and ended it 1,000 metres above Cape Blanc-Nez, near the French port of Calais, where he opened a parachute and landed at 6:23 am. To launch him on his high-speed glide, he was taken up from Calais in a Skyvan aircraft, from which he jumped from high above Dover.
Baumgartner, who reached a speed of some 200 kilometres (120 miles) an hour during his glide was wearing an aerodynamic suit fitted with a 1.80 metre (six-foot) long carbon-fibre wing for the 35 kilometre (20 mile) glide. He also had special breathing apparatus for the high-altitude start of the flight, and was protected from the extreme cold at such heights by his special suit.
