John Hillman looks to the skies in wonder at man’s perpetual stupidity

Almost one hundred years ago a young Frenchman set out to become the first person to fly across the English Channel; his exploits remain the benchmark for kamikaze adventurers to this day.

Louis Blériot took off in rough weather, on 25 July 1909, from Les Barraques, Calais, at 4.30 a.m. He was strapped into a tiny monoplane, powered by a 3 cylinder engine and a wooden propeller, which just about managed to cough and splutter its way across the 22 mile stretch of seawater before crash landing somewhere in a field in Kent.

Amazingly he did this at a top speed of 40 miles per hour and an altitude of 250 feet in conditions that were so poor he lost sight of all landmarks. He had to contend with torrential rain, which threatened to shut off his tiny engine, and just to make him even more Steve McQueenesque he did it while suffering from serious burns from an earlier practice flight when petrol leaked onto him and set fire to his foot.

But nothing rewards suicidal stupidity like the art of getting away with it and this he did, claiming his £1000 prize from that true godfather of modern entertainment, Alfred Harmsworth, proprietor of the Daily Mail, and going on to enjoy some proper Edwardian celebrity.

Fast forward 100 years and it is heartening to see that the spirit of Blériot lives on, as Yves Rossi seeks to join the great pantheon of human apes that have successfully blasted themselves over this small stretch of water.

Strapped to an 8 foot long carbon-fibre wing Rossi will (once the weather clears up) bomb across the Channel at 115 miles an hour, reminding us that human achievement is not all about numbers on a balance sheet, but about a person’s unquenchable desire to defy the physical limits put on them by the rules of nature.

In troubled times around the world it’s good to see that someone is still subscribing to the same spirit of adventure that got us all to this point in the first place.

Rossi we salute you; you crazy Swiss cuckoo clock.

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