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Original story

This morning, the Airbus e-Fan electric airplane will attempt to cross the English Channel (also known as la Manche in France). Lift-off is scheduled for 9:15am BST (10:15 CEST) from Lydd in Kent, to Calais in France. You can find some photos of the flight in the gallery above.

The e-Fan is designed and piloted by Didier Esteyne. The cruise speed is an estimated 100mph (86 knots). The battery life of the e-Fan is just 50 minutes—and funnily enough, the expected duration of the flight is 45 minutes.

It had been anticipated that this would be the first flight across the English Channel purely on battery power, but it appears that it may have been pipped at the post by Hugues Duwal in an electric Cri Cri.

For more details about the e-Fan itself, which is all carbon fibre and lithium-ion batteries, read our in-depth explainer about the crossing.

Updated: We are hearing that, under the cover of darkness last night, Hugues Duwal decided to cross the English Channel in his tiny Cri Cri electric plane. As we originally reported yesterday, another electric plane—the Pipistrel Alpha Electro—should've crossed the Channel as well, but the flight was reportedly blocked due to a dispute between the plane maker and Siemens (which made the electric motor in the Alpha Electro).