We see that javascript is disabled or not supported by your browser - javascript is needed for important actions on the site. Read more

What's New - Home - Login

Member $avings: $81,736,614.22 | Books Available: 736,315 | Members Online: 67

Swap Used Books - Buy New Books at Great Prices!

How To Swap Books Sign Up Search submenu

PBS Market (New Books)

Gift Buying Guide

Book Browser Advanced Search Books Posted Today Member Book Reviews Award Winning Books NYT Best Sellers Amazon Best Sellers Most Traveled Copies Club Wish List

Discussion Forums Book Lists

Club Lists My Book Lists My Watched Lists Create a List

Blog Donations

School Donation Program In Memory of... Military Donation Program Friends of PBS

Box-O-Books Maps The Eclectic Pen Fun Stuff

20 Questions Sudoku Bookmark Creator

Top 100

Requests Posts Swappers Referrers Reviewers

Pulse of PBS Spread The Word

Invite Friends Bookmarks Facebook Page Facebook App More Ways...

Photo Gallery Recipes Club Tag Cloud Member Testimonials

Help Center submenu

How To Swap Books Browse Help Docs Ask the Librarian PBS Member Icons Live Help

Kiosk

PBS Market (New Books) Go Shopping Buy Credits Buy PBS Money Upgrade Membership Gift Certificates Transfer Credits

Need Help?

Search - Bird Dream: Adventures at the Extremes of Human Flight

Bird Dream Adventures at the Extremes of Human Flight
Author: Matt Higgins

A gripping chronicle of skydivers, BASE jumpers, and the latest aerial pioneers on the edge — Human flight is one of the last great challenges on Earth. Not like how the Wright brothers flew, but how we fly in our dreams. — This is the goal of the Wingsuit Landing Project: to soar through the sky at speeds up to 100 mph, over distances up to four ... more »and a half miles, and to land without the aid of a parachute. At least half a dozen groups around the globe have taken part, from France, South Africa, Australia, Russia, and Britain to the United States. This project is the creation of thirty-seven-year-old adrenaline-seeking Jeb Corliss, Jr., a Southern Californian who seeks to emulate a mode of flight more like a flying squirrel than bird or plane. The possibilities of the wingsuit concept have captured the human imagination— from the mythical Icarus to beloved character Wile E. Coyote—but the results have usually been disastrous. New designs developed over the past two decades have made the wingsuit slightly safer and more predictable, but immense dangers still remain.

Journalist Matt Higgins gained intimate access to wingsuit pioneer Corliss; a brash, publicity-hungry rich kid from LA who, after years of BASE jumping and skydiving, set out to be the first person to be dropped 2,400 feet and land solely with the aid of a wingsuit. But somewhere in the UK, a forty-two-year-old man of average means was plotting to beat Corliss at his own $3 million game. His name was Gary Connery. Along with an international group of wingsuit devotees—including a Finnish magician, a parachute tester from Brazil, an Australian computer programmer, a gruff former Hollywood stuntman-turned aeronautical engineer, a French skydiving champion, and a South African costume designer—Corliss and Connery race to leap into the unknown as the world?s foremost wingsuit pilots. This race will nearly cost one of the competitors his life.

Bird Dream is a riveting, adrenaline-fueled narrative about a group of unforgettable characters who risk everything to achieve man?s age-old dream of flying. Chronicling everything from stunt parachuting in 1960s Hollywood to BASE jumping off landmark buildings in Manhattan to wingsuit flying in South America, Bird Dream takes readers to the cutting edge of this new frontier—as well as the strange science and fearless history that have led us to this remarkable point in the human experience.

The Market's bargain prices are even better for Paperbackswap club members!

Retail Price: ~~$27.95~~
Buy New (Hardcover): $19.79 (save 29%) or
Become a PBS member and pay $15.89+1 PBS book credit Help icon

(save 43%)

ISBN-13: 9781594204654
ISBN-10: 1594204659
Publication Date: 7/31/2014
Pages: 288
Rating:

0 stars, based on 0 rating

Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback, Audio CD
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

Read All 1 Book Reviews of "Bird Dream Adventures at the Extremes of Human Flight"

Genres:

History >> World >> Expeditions & Discoveries
Sports & Outdoors >> Biographies
Sports & Outdoors >> Extreme Sports

Back to the Top ↑

Search - Bird Dream: Adventures at the Extremes of Human Flight

Loading...