The Fullness of Wings

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. (Aug.)