Jetman makes history with solo flight across Channel

SWISS adventurer Yves Rossy cracked open the champagne yesterday as he toasted becoming the first person to fly solo across the English Channel using a single jet-propelled wing.

A global audience witnessed Rossy leap from a plane more than 8,200ft (2,500m) above France before soaring at more than 180km/h over one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes powered by four jets on his home-made wing.

Before making the jump, he gave a high five to his crew and then perched himself perilously on a step just outside the plane door in what Rossy described as perfect weather conditions.

Several minutes into the flight, scores of spectators waiting for him on top of the White Cliffs of Dover saw the 49-year-old professional pilot come into view.

With a light wind on his back, he crossed the iconic cliffs in just over nine minutes and even completed some loops before spending some four more minutes in the air after pulling the rip cord on his parachute.

He landed in a field just behind the South Foreland lighthouse at 1.19pm.