The Fullness of Wings - Hardcover

Dorsey, Gary

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670824445 ISBN 13: 9780670824441

Publisher: Viking Adult, 1990

Synopsis

Offers an account of the longest human-powered flight in the history of aviation, in which Kanellos Kanellopoulos replicated Daedalus's mythical seventy-mile journey from Crete to the Greek island of Santorini

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

On April 24, 1988, the longest human-powered flight in history took place from Crete to mainland Greece, the culmination of a decade-long project begun at MIT and inspired by the classical legend of Daedalus and Icarus. This exciting book by freelance writer Dorsey is the story of what lay behind that flight, from project director John Langford's passion for model airplanes to pilot Kanellos Kanellopoulos's breakfast of baklava and wheat bread to fuel him with the stamina to serve as the "engine." This is the well-told tale of a dream and its realization by a group of engineers who sacrificed much to build a 68-pound plane with no foreseeable practical applications merely for the joy of doing it. Predictably there were personality clashes, jealousies and grousing, but not enough to jeopardize the success of the mission. Photos not seen by PW. 25,000 first printing.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

The myth of Daedalus and the challenge of human-powered flight have been around for centuries. A group of students, engineers, and dreamers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology joined physiologists and others to make the myth a reality in 1988, with the pedal-driven Daedalus '88 re-creating Daedalus's 74-mile flight from Crete to the Greek island of Santorini. Journalist Dorsey's story of this odyssey is fascinating; in addition to explaining the technological and aerodynamic issues of the flight, he also discusses the problems of finding corporate sponsors, the clashes with the iconoclastic builders, the antagonisms of the bicycle athletes who competed to be pilot, and more. The human dimension makes the book an interesting yarn, and it will be a welcome addition to aviation collections.
- Roger Bilstein, Univ. of Houston-Clear Lake
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking Adult
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0670824445
• ISBN 13: 9780670824441
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 384