A French pilot crossed the English Channel on Wednesday in a flying car that looks part dune buggy, part paraglider.
Under a clear blue sky, Bruno Vezzoli launched his flying machine down an abandoned wartime runway near Calais, lurching from side to side as he slowly gained altitude suspended beneath a giant canopy.
“I would say that the biggest risk, just like with any engine-powered machine, would be a breakdown,” Vezzoli told foreign media agencies as he made his pre-take-off checks. “Usually you land on the ground, but in this case, we would have to do a sea-landing.”
Vezzoli landed safely 59 km (36 miles) away, near the English port town of Dover.
Named “Pegasus” – a winged horse in Greek mythology – the flying car is the brainchild of Jerome Dauffy, an entrepreneur inspired by early aviators such as Brazilian Alberto Santos-Dumont and Frenchman Louis Bleriot who made the first flight across the Channel in 1909.
“The automotive and aeronautic industries were born around a century ago and it’s only now that we are managing to combine the two modes,” Dauffy said.
Dauffy’s initial ambition had been to build a flying machine that could travel round the world in 80 days.
