The attempt was admittedly goofy. An american was carried across the English Channel on Friday, carried by helium balloons, and he landed in a cabbage patch in France.36-year-old Jonathan Trappe of Raleigh North Carolina lifted off early Friday from Kent England and crossed the channel in a specially eguipped chair hanging from a bundle of balloons. Five hours later he landed in the cabbage patch. Trappetold reporters from Sky News Television,"It was just an exceptional, quiet, peaceful experience,"

So why did he do it? Trappe replied  "Didn't you have this dream, grabbing on to a bunch of toy balloons and floating off? I think it's something that's shared across cultures and across borders - just this wonderful fantasy of grabbing on to toy
balloons and floating into open space." But you don't just grab a few balloons and go, it's more complicated than that. Trappe made a scouting trip in March, and had to get the permission of French and British aviation authorities before he could proceed. And he wasn't in some cheap folding chair, his equipment list included an aircraft transponder, oxygen,aircraft radios, emergency locator beacon, in-flight satellite tracking and a radio tracker.

His crossing was much less eventful than the first balloon crossing of the English Channel in 1785. French balloonist Jean-Pierre Francois Blanchard and John Jeffries, an American doctor who paid for the flight, set off in a hydrogen balloon which started leaking in flight. The pair dumped all their ballast and most of their clothes into the water and just managed to stay airborne and land in Calais. Last month, Trappe claimed the record for the longest free-floating balloon flight after spending 14 hours blowing in the wind  over North Carolina and traveling 109 miles. On another flight, his website says he ascended to 17,930 feet, just below controlled airspace. Find out more at www.clusterballoon.com