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Press, 13 June 1979, Page 1

Bryan Allen pedalled his way into the history books yesterday by making the first man-powered flight across the English Channel. Mr Allen, aged 26, a cyclist from California, completed the crossing in his 21kg plastic aircraft in two hours 50 minutes, NZPA reports from Calais.

He took off from Folkstone, in Kent, and skimmed across the waves at a height of 3m to Cap Gris Nez in France closely followed by a lifeboat. The 35km crossing wins Mr Allen a £lOO,OOO prize offered by an Englishman, Mr Henry Kremer, and administered by the Royal

Aeronautical Society. However, the attempt almost never got off the ground. On the first take-off attempt at Folkstone the aircraft, the Gossamer Albatross, shown above on a test-flight, lurched off the runway and keeled over. But on the second attempt Mr Allen, pedalling furiously inside his tiny transparent cockpit, rose Clad only in shorts, a crash helmet, cycling shoes, and a lifejacket, he had to fight against headwind occasionally, but Coastguards who watched the attempt said that he did “wonderfully welt”