New version of "Flight of the Gossamer Condor"

A few months ago, I made mention of the passing of inventor Paul MacCready. Recently, I received this email from Ben Shedd, the director of "The Flight of the Gossamer Condor," the story of MacCready's efforts to create a human-powered aircraft. With his permission, I include it here (slightly edited).

I made the film THE FLIGHT OF THE GOSSAMER CONDOR and it was great to find it mentioned in your blog. Paul MacCready's story has had a big impact on my life as well and I appreciated your comments.

For the 30th Anniversary of the Gossamer Condor's human-powered flight into aviation history, the film was remastered in HD and digitally restored from a preservation film print made by the Academy Film Archive. I would be glad to send you a preview copy of the DVD. In the past year, the film is now required in a national high school engineering program called PROJECT LEAD THE WAY and it is my hope that a whole new generation of teenagers will be inspired like you were to design and create their own inventions from seeing the Gossamer Condor's story.

Thanks, Ben, for writing, and for those interested in checking out the new 30th anniversary DVD, click here.

(Photo: MacCready's plane the Gossamer Albatross (the successor to the Gossamer Condor), courtesy of NASA)

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