The Leading Edge: Gliding. An Adventure Story. BY Dick Georgeson And Anna Wilson. SIGNED BY BOTH AUTHORS.

The Leading Edge: Gliding. An Adventure Story. BY Dick Georgeson And Anna Wilson.

Publisher: Georgeson Wilson, 2003, First Edition. VERY SCARCE SIGNED BY BOTH AUTHORS.

Very good softback, minor tanning to page edges.

One of the most famous figures in world gliding, Dick Georgeson spent much of his childhood at Irishman Creek Station with his uncle, renowned engineer and inventor Bill Hamilton. Learning to glide in England in 1949, he was soon completely hooked; by 1951 he hd his first New Zealand gliding record, and first world record by 1960. In 1979 the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) awarded him the gold medal, the highest award for flying, followed in 1985 by the Lilienthal Medal Medal, the highest award for gliding. In 1979 he received and MBE for services to aviation in New Zealand.His story interweaves a fascinating personal biography with gripping descriptions of many of his record-breaking flights. A bold pioneer in long crosswind wave flight, he pursued his addiction with courage and tenacity. Tribute is paid to other pioneers and pilots; the evolution of sailplanes from the fabric-covered, 'wings and wires', open-cockpit glider he first flew is described, and he tells of some of the risks and accidents associated with throwing oneself at the mercy of weather and terrain. The book is introduced with a foreword by Einar Enevoldson, former NASA test pilot and mastermind of the Perlan Project, the attempt to research the polar vortex in the stratosphere in a sailplane with the American adventurer Steve Fossett. Anyone with an interest in high adventure of any kind will find this book utterly absorbing. 212 pages with photos.

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