Balloon over the channel

(May 28) -- All Jonathan Trappe needed to cross the English Channel was an idea, a lot of helium and a slight breeze.

Early this morning, the Raleigh, N.C., native became the first man to travel from England to France using cluster balloons -- a bare-bones mode of flight in which aviators sit in chairs attached to a number of small balloons and control their altitude by popping or releasing balloons.

Trappe took off from Kent in southeast England, according to CBS News, and floated for about three hours before he released some of his brightly colored balloons and touched down in a cabbage field outside Dunkirk, France.

Last month, Trappe soared into history by establishing new distance and endurance records with a 109-mile cluster balloon voyage that lasted nearly 14 hours over his home state.

But this much shorter 22-mile trip across the English Channel carries great significance for the aviator."It is such a classic challenge, isn't it? That iconic ribbon of water separating the U.K. from the continent has called to people for generations, tempting them to cross since long before you or I were born," he wrote on his website, ClusterBalloon.com, before taking off.

"I don't know if it is a siren's song, or if crossing that ribbon of water will be like breaking the ribbon at the finish line," said the pilot, who in order to comply with international aviation laws outfitted himself with a transponder, a radio, an emergency beacon, oxygen, lights, a flotation vest, a parachute -- and little else.

The 36-year-old told Sky News he enjoyed the calm voyage across the storied Channel."It was just an exceptionally quiet, peaceful experience," he said.

Trappe is only the latest in a long line of balloonists to traverse the Channel, starting in 1785 with French balloonist Jean-Pierre Francois Blanchard and American doctor and investor John Jeffries -- whose voyage wasn't as easy as Trappe's.According to the Chicago Tribune, their hydrogen balloon started leaking mid-flight and they were forced to dump all of their ballast -- and most of their clothing -- so they could stay airborne until landing in Calais.

Airbus A380 shuttle London to Paris

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_a380

Air France Launches A380 Shuttle

Airbus likely didn't envision its super-long-range flagship A380 being used as a shuttle but Air France apparently thinks it can make money hopping across the English Channel with the giant airliner.

The airline will begin summer weekend A380 service between London's Heathrow and Paris's Charles de Gaulle airports June 12. There will be one flight a day each way from Saturday to Monday for most of the summer and Friday flights will be added for July. Air France is launching the service with a seat sale and one-way tickets are about $275 on the reservations Web site.
The gate-to-gate flight time is about 75 minutes, most of it spent in climb and descent.

Obviously the flight will increase capacity on the already-busy route but Air France also has some internal reasons for the move. The airline currently operates three A380s on traditional long-haul routes like Paris-Johannesburg and Paris-New York and it has nine more super jumbos on order. The London-Paris hop is a good way to introduce large numbers of cabin and flight crew members to the aircraft in a relatively short period of time in advance of the other aircraft deliveries.

The Woopy-Fly

The Woopy-Fly, a sort of paraglider/trike/ultralight hybrid shown on the world stage at AERO Friedrichshafen this April 2010 in Germany, has a wing that folds for storage like a paraglider — because it's inflatable.

Currently, it appears the wing itself is only available from distributors in Switzerland, Russia, and Japan. Those wishing to buy the trike (plus wing) can expect a complete kit cost to run about 13,780 Swiss Francs, which currently is about US$12,400 — plus the legal disclaimer that releases the manufacturer of liability.

The bare basic flying. A wing and motor, packs into your trunk.

smoke angel

A C-17 Globemaster III from the 14th Airlift Squadron, Charleston Air Force Base, South Carolina. flies off after releasing flares over the Atlantic Ocean near Charleston, South Carolina, during a training mission on Tuesday, May 16, 2006. The "smoke angel" is caused by wing vortices at the plane's wingtips

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wingtip_vortices

Wingtip vortices are tubes of circulating air which are left behind a wing as it generates lift.[1] One wingtip vortex trails from the tip of each wing. The cores of vortices spin at very high speed and are regions of very low pressure.

Boeing 787 touching base with the past.

Boeing 787 Dreamliner Flying With a Boeing 40C




It is amazing to see Boeing’s oldest flying aircraft with their newest.

http://www.antiqueairfield.com/articles/show/583-boeing-legacy-boeing-40-and-the-787-dreamliner-

http://www.airlinereporter.com/2010/05/pictures-boeing-787-flying-with-boeing-40c/

My how far we have come in less than 100 years.

Oldest Boeing Transport Flies Again

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Model_40

Instrument panel photo. Looks like a simple machine compared to the jets of today.

Oldest Boeing Transport Flies Again

Boeing 40The Boeing 40 was a single engine mail plane with a passenger compartment. One of the biplanes, which crashed on an Oregon mountain in 1928, is meticulously restored and flying again

Who needs a airplane to fly?

http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Red-Bull.com/HolyShit/011242745950125

Flying over Corinth gap, Greece. Robbie Madison's jump.

Two become one

http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Red-Bull.com/Video/011242745950125#/subcategory-videos/6/date

Wing walking on a glider. Not something you see every day.

Light Sport Circumnavigation

Small planes, large ocean.....

http://www.azimut270.ch/en/1910.html

Marking the 100th anniversary of the first flights in Switzerland. Two airline pilots set out to circle the globe.

Follow along with their flight on the link above.