Icarus' Children
The story of man-powered flight
To fly like a bird has long been a human ambition. To use an engine or to glide from a height is somehow cheating. It must be human-powered.
In 1959, British businessman Henry Kremer offered a prize, now worth £50,000, to the first person who could fly a prescribed figure-of-eight course. Tonight's film shows the various attempts since then to win the prize. Strange machines struggle to leave the ground. Some crash in a heap, some fail altogether. But the dedication of small, mostly amateur groups to overcome seemingly impossible problems is quite remarkable. One of them gloriously succeeds. The prize went to Californian Paul MacCready whose frail craft Gossamer Condor, after a long series of trials and mishaps, successfully flew the course on 23 August 1977.
Film editor ANDREW HALL
Producer SIMON CAMPBELL-JONES