Brian Milton

rdf:langString Brian Milton

rdf:langString Brian Milton

rdf:langString Brian Milton

rdf:langString Journalist, adventurer and aviation historian

rdf:langString Brian Milton is a British journalist, adventurer and aviation historian who made the first circumnavigation of the world in an ultralight aircraft in 1998. In the face of significant political, geographical, personal and physical hardships, he completed the 24,000 mile flight in 80 flying days, taking 120 days in total. Milton's first major expedition took place in 1968 when he drove a 1937 Austin 7 Ruby across the Sahara Desert to meet his fiancée. Milton has won multiple awards as an ultralight (microlight) and hang glider pilot. His interest in microlights grew from a love of hang gliding. He was the Founder of the British National League in 1976, designing a competition format and gathering together the top 54 hang glider pilots in the UK. In October 1978 at Chattanooga, Tennessee, Milton captained the British hang gliding team to victory in the America Cup. The following month he planned another feat: to fly across the English Channel to Paris in one of the first motorized gliders. On 13 November 1978, he was practicing in the prototype over Wiltshire, England. At a height of 250 feet, the wings of the glider collapsed and Milton, unable to open his parachute in time, plummeted to the ground. Miraculously, he survived with severe bruising and some broken bones. The story of Milton's brush with death was covered on the BBC Nine O'Clock News that evening, where newscaster Angela Ripon described Milton as "the luckiest man alive." His flight in the Dalgety Flyer (a Shadow 3-axis microlight) in 1987 from London to Sydney in 59 days was, at the time, the longest, fastest microlight flight in history but he is better known for his adventure in 1998 when he made the first circumnavigation of the world in the Global Flyer - a Pegasus Quantum (912) weightshift flexwing ultralight (microlight) trike - travelling 24,000 miles in 120 days, at the time the Guinness World Record for the fastest ultralight or microlight circumnavigation. Chris Bonington devoted a chapter to this feat in his book Quest for Adventure: Remarkable Feats of Exploration and Adventure 1950-2000. Bonnington described Milton's flight around the world as "an amazing achievement, of dogged bloody-minded tenacity and the taking of some huge risks.." In 2001 Milton attempted to cross the Atlantic non-stop in a Mainair Blade (912) weight shift microlight fitted with a massive 438 litre fuel tank - an adventure that didn't quite go as planned. In 23 May 2009 issue of the UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph, Milton was named as one of the "Top 20 great British adventurers" still living.