Brian Milton

Who is Brian Milton?

Brian Milton is a British journalist and adventurer who made the first circumnavigation of the world in an ultralight aircraft in 1998, taking 120 days. His 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 and hang-glider pilot. His interest in microlights grew from a love of hang-gliding. 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 November 13, 1978, he was practicing in the prototype over Dorset, 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."