THE FLIGHT OF THE GOSSAMER CONDOR film tells the inspiring true story of history's first successful human-powered flight. Renowned inventor Dr. Paul MacCready and his team were filmed creating the world-famous pedaled-powered airplane as it happened.
This Documentary film from filmmaker Ben Shedd and Producer Jacqueline Phillips Shedd received the 1978 Academy Award® Oscar® for Best Documentary Short Subject and 14 other International film awards.
The historic flight of the Gossamer Condor was featured as one of the Millennium Moments in the National Geographic® magazine February 1998. This family film about the first successful human powered airplane shows an historic landmark event in the world of flight.
(From the Back Cover) From the earliest of times, we have longed to fly like a bird, to soar through the air by our own power. The Gossamer Condor is the fragile aircraft that fulfilled this age-old dream. This true-life film account of a landmark in history documents the work, adventure, and creative thinking which turned an impossible dream - human-powered flight - into a scientific reality.
The Shedd Productions film was made over one year as inventor/scientist Dr. Paul B. MacCready, his family, and crew struggled to win the coveted 50,000 British pounds sterling/$100,000 Kremer Prize, offered for the first successful human-powered flight.
The Gossamer Condor aircraft is on display in the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum where it hangs in an honored place beside the Wright Brothers' first airplane and the Apollo 11 moon capsule.
THE FLIGHT OF THE GOSSAMER CONDOR film captures an important historical event and scientific achievement on film and attests to the strength of the human spirit. It takes us inside the invention process and reveals how the magic combination of creativity, dedication, persistence combined with aluminum tubing, styrofoam, wire and mylar together made human-powered flight possible. Uplifting entertainment for all ages, this film by Jacqueline Phillips Shedd and Ben Shedd is an inspiring view of the creative process underlying all discovery and invention.