The snubby nose of the broad-winged aircraft looked as if it had been flattened against the white cliffs of Dover. The propeller sprouted out of its tail like a designer's afterthought. In the cabin, the pilot rode a first cousin to a bicycle, and he was pedaling furiously. A covey of anxious friends checked his progress.
The strange craft lurched down the runway at De Havilland's Airfield in Hatfield, England, until it reached almost 20 m.p.h. Then the pilot pulled back on his handlebar control, and the plane glided all of 8 ft. into...
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