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	Austrian Flies Across English Channel By Associated Press posted: 10:57 pm ET 31 July 2003

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CALAIS, France (AP) -- An Austrian specializing in daring stunt jumps donned a carbon fiber wing and flew across the English Channel on Thursday after being dropped from a plane.

Felix Baumgartner made the 34-kilometer (21-mile) trip in 14 minutes, according to Sarah Christofi, his spokeswoman.

"It's very cold up there,'' the 34-year-old Austrian said upon landing at Cap Blanc-Nez, near the Channel port of Calais. ``I still can feel nothing.''

Baumgartner, fitted out with a parachute, was lofted from an airplane some 9,144 meters (30,000 feet) above Dover.

However, he relied solely on the 1.8-meter (5.9-foot) wing attached to his back for the trip, opening his parachute west of Calais only to slow down and land. He was dropped above Dover at 6:09 a.m. and landed at 6:23 a.m., at one point traveling at 350 kph (217 mph) Christofi said.

Despite the chill, Baumgartner said he felt ``great.''

Cloud cover obscured vision, forcing Baumgartner to follow two lead planes to find his way. His spaceman-like suit was equipped with cameras and monitoring equipment so that he could be tracked.

The first man to parachute from Malaysia's Petronas Towers _ the world's tallest building _ Baumgartner said it wasn't by chance that he chose the English Channel to literally try out his wing.

"The Channel fits perfectly for the performance of the wing .... There's a lot of spirit in this place,'' he said.

The extreme sports fanatic recalled the 1909 flight across the Channel of French aviator Louis Bleriot.

"And it's exactly 100 years ago that the Wright Brothers were doing the first flight with a plane,'' he said. "And now I'm here, with my little wing."

Americans Wilbur and Orville Wright made the first powered flight, in a rickety airplane, in December 1903.

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