Pedal-Powered Airship

Guy Martin sets out to become the first person to cross the English Channel in a human-powered airship. Working closely with French aeronautical engineer StÚphane Rousson, Guy plans to sit on a 'flying bicycle' suspended beneath a helium-filled balloon the size of a bus, with every pedal stroke spinning two propellers. Guy learns to fly indoors, at the historic Cardington Hangars in Bedfordshire, the former factory where some of the world's biggest flying machines were created. He also takes a fast jet pilot course with the British military elite so that he knows what to do if he has to crash land. Taking off from Kent, Guy has to cover 24 miles over the busiest shipping lane in the world to reach the French coast: a journey that might take eight hours if the wind is blowing in the wrong direction.