Forget about the high-tech human jet crossing the Channel. This man plans to do it with a pedal-powered balloon:
Frenchman Stéphane Rousson hopes to make it to the record books today as the first man to cross the Channel hanging under a homemade zeppelin. The little propellers are powered by his own legs. All he needs is a feeble wind, and some luck. If all goes well, his journey from Dover to Calais will take five hours. This post will be updated later today.
Update FAIL: he made it halfway, then made a plunge in the water!
Who would have thought that the Chunnel fire would move men to such desperate acts.
This is a bit old hat. In 1979 a pedal powered aircraft called the Gossamer Albatross was flown across the Channel. See Wikipedia.
The first flight across the Channel was in 1785 by a Montgolfier balloon.