Screening-conference: Dreams of Icarus

Rêves d'Icare, Pionniers et aventuriers du vol non motorisés, the new book by Gérard Guerrier... Editions Paulsen.
An illustrated history of non-motorized flight.
Icarus and Daedalus, Eilmer of Malmesbury, the 11th-century flying monk, glider pilots who discovered thermal lift and extreme paragliders all shared a common dream: to fly like birds in the sky.
From antiquity to the present day, Gérard Guerrier tells the story of free flight. Drawing on a wealth of sometimes burlesque, often vertiginous iconography, he follows in the footsteps of the pioneers and precursors, gentle dreamers, engineers and genius inventors who have enabled considerable advances in aeronautics.
From the famous Otto Lilienthal to the little-known Samuel Franklin Cody, the cowboy who pretended to be Buffalo Bill's son and didn't hesitate to board giant kites, from bat wings and muscle bikes to BASE jumping and solar-powered gliders, the author explores all forms of non-motorized flight, putting them into perspective to better understand the sometimes winding trail that allowed these daughters and sons of Icarus to take flight.
Gérard Guerrier's eclecticism has already enabled him to live several lives with passion: as a diving engineer, company director, mountain guide, hang-glider pilot, journalist and travel writer... He has opened several major trekking routes in Eastern Siberia and Central Asia, and now lives between the Chartreuse and Belledonne massifs.