Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice older book in good condition. Pages in great condition. No notes or highlighting. Dustcover a bit worn. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> An elegant frail craft floating lazily upon a summer breeze hardly conjures up thoughts of anything but a pleasant pastime. But since gliding was in its infancy the sport has been surrounded by high drama. In the early days it was the drama of achieving sustained flight for only a few minutes the determination to overcome disappointment and frustration the scavenging for serviceable parts to build into a mongrel craft; in war there were the critical troop-carrying even tank-carrying missions and in recent years there has been international com- petition of the keenest calibre. The men who flew the early gliders were pioneers in the truest sense tack- ling the unpredictable with a courage that equalled their skill. Lilienthal Pilcher the Wright Brothers Klemperer these were the men who fulfilled Leonardo da Vinci’s dream and gave life to the myth of Icarus. Their achievements and the important developments to which they gave rise make a fascinating story and Michael Cumming follows all the milestones along an absorbing path of aviation history to tell it in detail from the hill-soaring efforts of 60 years ago to the present day. (SP)