Shifting Winds Spell End To Zeppy's Record Attempt

Blame it on the wind... and in this case, it's not just hangar talk. French pilot Stephane Rousson's attempt to pilot a human-powered airship across the English Channel came to an end Sunday, when shifting winds made it impossible for him to complete the 34-mile journey.

"I'm not disappointed. I feel happy because it had nothing to do with any technical failure," Rousson told the BBC.

Rousson's "Zeppy" airship tool off from Hythe, on the coast of Kent, at 0800 British Standard Time Sunday. Five hours later, he was halfway across the Channel, with the French coast in sight... but things soon took a turn for the worse, when the wind unexpectedly shifted.

The pilot was eventually forced to call off the attempt just 11 miles from his destination of Wissant.

"We were about three-quarters of the way across but the wind was flowing in the wrong direction for me to make it across," Rousson said. "Unfortunately there was nothing to suggest from the weather forecasts that there was going to be this change in the direction of the wind."

Rousson's team had waited over a week for the right winds -- less than five miles-per-hour, blowing to the west -- needed to take off in the frail airship, comprised of a carbon-fiber bicycle-line frame suspended under a helium-filled envelope. Two spindly, movable propellers connected to a pedal crankshaft provide the power, and some directional control.

A spokesman for Rousson's team took a pragmatic approach to Sunday's developments. "To have set off is a victory in itself. He had to wait for just the right weather conditions but they came at the right time."

To date, Rousson is 0-2 for making it across the Channel. His first attempt in June also came to an end, despite waiting two weeks for the right weather conditions.

FMI: www.zeppy.org