AN AUSTRIAN is due to attempt to become the first man to fly across the English Channel unaided on Thursday morning (July 31).

Felix Baumgartner plans to leap from a plane 9,000 metres, (30,000 feet) above Dover at 4am and glide across the Channel to Calais.

He estimates he will travel at speeds of up to 224 miles an hour, and will have to endure temperatures as low as minus 68 degree Centigrade.

He hopes to land by parachute at Cap Blanc Nez seven minutes after leaping from the plane.

Mr Baumgartner, who is 34 and is a former mechanic and motor cross driver, says he wants to be known as the “god of the skies” and is confident he can succeed in flying across the Channel.

He will wear an aerodynamic jumpsuit with a six-foot carbon wing attached to it, and he will have an oxygen supply.

In 1999, Mr Baumgartner achieved the record for jumping from the 452-metre (1,483-foot) high Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur which is the tallest building in the world.

He has also parachuted from the right hand of the 30.5-metre (100-foot) high statue of Christ in Rio de Janeiro.