A plane powered only by lithium batteries has successfully crossed the Channel, from Lydd Airport in Kent to Calais.

Pilot Didier Estyene’s E-Fan plane was airborne for around 40 minutes.

However, it is understood that another French pilot, Hugues Duval, may have beaten him to the record of the first cross-Channel flight in an electric-powered plane, flying from Calais to England and back again.