Birdmen, Batmen, and Skyflyers: Wingsuits and the Pioneers Who Flew in Them, Fell in Them, and Perfected Them (Paperback)

by Michael Abrams (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
When Abrams talks about humans flying, he is referring more to Icarus than to airplanes. From ancient myths through China "sometime in the sixth century A.D." to present-day skydivers, Abrams chronicles the men and their various models of wings that have taken to the air in hope of flying like a bird. The tales of flight range from the silly and mysterious to the inspiring and unbelievable. Abrams's brief biographies are deep enough to convey how serious these birdmen take the notion of flight, but lighthearted enough to capture the carefree way most of these sky flyers face possible death. For instance, Abrams isn't afraid to paraphrase Shakespeare in describing one would-be flyer who also happened to be an English king thus: "the wind did not crack its cheeks quite enough to keep the sovereign aloft—'twas his neck that cracked instead." Abrams's witty touch is a saving grace considering that many of these daredevils' stories follow a similar arc: as Abrams notes, an exceptionally high percentage of successful and would-be birdmen are, for some unexplained reason, either orphans or from the state of Michigan. B&w photos. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist
An entertaining sidebar to the history of aviation is the story of attempts to fly, glide, or at least fall slowly with the aid of strap-on lifting surfaces--a tale that begins in ancient China and continued in the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci. The resultant contraptions often resembled bird or bat wings, and a good many of them can be mistaken for the Caped Crusader's distinctive gear. The foes of these experimental contrivances were not, however, criminals a la Gotham City but the laws of aerodynamics, which dictated that these designs just could not produce enough lift for the performance desired of them. The chatty tone of Abrams' sketches of important figures in his chronicle may strike some as in poor taste, considering the number of the subjects who came to fatal ends. The rigid-wing glider, mated to controllable surfaces and the internal-combustion engine, finally opened the skies. Yet once the fixed-wing aircraft was ready, thanks to these experimenters, so was the parachute. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press (May 22, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400054923
• ISBN-13: 978-1400054923
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #747,292 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A unique survey of exotic aircraft in general and wing suits in particular, August 15, 2006

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Birdmen, Batmen, and Skyflyers: Wingsuits and the Pioneers Who Flew in Them, Fell in Them, and Perfected Them (Hardcover)

BIRDMEN, BATMEN AND SKYFLYERS: WINGSUITS AND THE PIONEERS WHO FLEW IN THEM, FELL IN THEM, AND PERFECTED THEM is a unique survey of exotic aircraft in general and wing suits in particular: those who wear often hand-made creations which defy the use of wings. Here are 'birdmen' who have attempted flight with wings of feathers, iron, leather and more. While their stories are often part of general aviation titles, it's rare to have an entire book devoted to their history, written by one who himself has jumped out of planes with wings. This alternative history of human flight is one which has long needed feature - and which will reach both aviation fans and general-interest audiences alike.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great read, but needs some fact-checking, January 30, 2009

By	James D. Crabtree "Doc Crabtree" (Guantanamo Bay, Cuba) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The author has produced a book that's fascinating to read and which covers a special aspect of skydiving, i.e. the old "Birdmen" phenomena. I really enjoyed some of the stories told here.

Unfortunately I think that much of the information included in this book must be based on personal experiences of those birdmen via interviews and self-serving biographies. For instance Valentin, the French jumper, described himself as joining the French Army and becoming a paratrooper in Algeria. Then came the war and the fall of Metropolitan France. He joined some of his buddies and they took a boat to England to enlist in the Free French. They were then dropped in Britanny in 1939 "with jeeps" where they attempted to fight the Germans. But wait... France fell in 1940. Plus, no jeeps could have been dropped into Europe during WWII... the technique for such heavy drops was not perfected until after the war. Vehicles and heavy equipment were sent in via gliders.

It's a little thing but it detracts from the whole.