I am very honoured that I have been asked to be a Patron of the “Cross Channel Competition”.
The English Channel is a mythical place steeped in history, geographically destined to be crossed by migratory birds, maritime travellers and air travellers alike.
Before becoming a regular traveller’s passage, many men and women had to open this path full of obstacles in the form of violent currents and other capricious meteorological conditions.
By boat since the beginning of time, by balloon in 1785 already…, by swimming in 1875…, then for the first time by plane thanks to Louis Blériot on the 25th of July 1909 from Calais to Dover.
Since that day, England was no longer an “air island”, a status it had to defend fiercely thanks to its pilots over the same Channel, during the famous Battle of Britain.
Thanks to its technology, humans have even managed to cross this famous passage today, by digging a tunnel to pass under it… and what today seems like a commonplace path to thousands of daily travellers, has always been a huge challenge for those who had to open the way!
110 years after the crossing by Blériot, a final challenge remains to be met, that of crossing this mythical passage in an aircraft using only the strength of a woman or a man, as Daedalus and Icarus had done with their wax wings to escape from Creta.
A magnificent human and technological challenge full of symbols, where the human regains its central strength, after having delegated it to other less pure energies.
I wish every success to all the participants by advising you as Daedalus: “don’t fly too low or too high to reach the other shore!”
Good luck to all of you!
