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In April 1999, 54 year-old Miles Hilton-Barber completed the toughest foot-race in the World - the Marathon des Sables, a 150 mile Ultra-Marathon race through the 120 degree heat of the Sahara Desert. |
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In August 2001 he participated in an 11 day Ultra-marathon event across China, including sections of the Gobi Desert,
12,000 feet high Tibetan mountain tracks and the Great Wall of China. On returning to the UK, he then climbed Ben Nevis
(the UK's highest mountain), and abseiled down several tower blocks for charity. |
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In January 2002 he competed in the Siberian Ice Marathon, billed as "The Coldest Marathon on Earth". A few weeks later,
after qualifying as a scuba diver, he undertook 12 open water dives in the Red Sea off Hurghada,
Egypt, exploring shipwrecks 80 feet down on coral reefs. He is now qualified as an Advanced Open Water scuba diver.
Six weeks later Miles, as part of a 5-man team, set an astonishing new world record - crossing the entire Qatar Desert
non-stop and unsupported. The 200 kilometre journey, pulling a third of a ton of water and supplies behind them, took
them over 78 hours day and night, without sleep.
Miles then flew direct to France, having entered in the Paris Marathon due to start 36 hours later, but on arrival in
Paris found himself unable to walk and was declared medically unfit due to ankle and feet injuries sustained in the desert. |
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In July 2003 he participated in the Commonwealth Games Queen's Jubilee Baton Relay Race. Five weeks later
Miles then set off on the massive "Around the World in Eighty Ways" project. This was a 93-day 38,000 mile circumnavigation
of the entire world, accompanied by two disabled friends, using over 80 challenging forms of transport, promoting the
untapped potential of people with disabilities. These included swimming 11 miles under the Red Sea, hot air ballooning
over the Nevada Desert and setting the lap record for a blind driver at the Malaysian Grand Prix Circuit, racing a 200kph
Lotus.
Miles set another world first in August 2003, becoming the first blind person to fly the English Channel in a microlight. |
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In 2004 Miles set a new British high-altitude record, climbing to
20,300 feet, with open cockpit temperatures plummeting to minus 55 Centigrade, frosting their flight instruments.
Soon after this he then undertook a wing walk on a fully aerobatic 450 horsepower Boeing Steerman bi-plane.
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In February 2005 he became the first blind person to do the solo Kamikaze Skeleton Run down the 5G Olympic bobsleigh track in Lillehammer, Norway, before experimenting with underwater communication systems, scuba diving on wrecks in the Red Sea.
In July 2005 he participated in the Bad Water ultra-marathon across Death Valley, California, with road temperatures reaching 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
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In March 2006 he went cage diving with Great White Sharks off Cape Town South Africa, where he also became the
first blind person to abseil 350 feet down Table Mountain.
He then travelled to Central America, where he competed in a 3-day canoe race from the Atlantic Ocean to the
Pacific Ocean via the Panama Canal.
In July 2006 he participated in an Austrian air display, co-piloting an historic 1932 vintage 3-engined Dornier air-sea rescue floatplane. A month later he undertook a 200 kilometre voyage down the Yangtze River in China for the Daily Mail newspaper. |
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In March this year Miles achieved another astounding world record undertaking a 55-day, 21,500 kilometre microlight flight more than half-way around the world from London to Sydney Australia, relying on revolutionary speech-output technology, accompanied by his sighted co-pilot.
In August Miles became the first blind pilot in world history to fly a sortie of extreme aerobatics in a +600 MPH Hawker Hunter jet fighter, accompanied by an ex-Red Arrows pilot, setting a blind world air speed record in the process.
Miles then went on to pilot a 340 BHP performance rated Zap Cat power boat in ocean time trials. |
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In March of this year, Miles travelled to South Africa and set three new aviation records for acceleration, speed, and altitude for a blind pilot. He broke the sound barrier, attaining a speed of Mach 1.4 (1,060 MPH) during a vertical climb to 50,000 feet in just 90 seconds. He flew in an English Electric Lightning off the coast of Cape Town accompanied by another pilot.
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