Transport: Icarus to Bossi

Three years ago, like many another newspaper, the New York Times carried an astonishing picture of a man on skis propelling himself off the ground by puffing into a pair of rotors. It turned out to be an April Fooler concocted by the editors of Germany's Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung. Year later, another story blossomed in Germany-that a pilot named Dünnbeil had shot his glider into the air with a rubber cable, flown 700 yd. by pumping furiously on a treadle. This flight, authenticated by the German Air Sport League, was still a compromise of human and mechanical power. Last week, however,...

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