Jeffries and Blanchard
Dr. John Jeffries and Jean-Pierre Blanchard made the first balloon flight across the English Channel in 1785. Jeffries, an American physician and meteorologist, and Blanchard, a French aviation inventor, flew from Dover, England, to Calais, France. They almost dropped into the English Channel and had to jettison almost everything to keep themselves in the air. Legend indicates that Blanchard even threw his trousers overboard!