MIT is a famous American University, called the Massachussets Institute of Technology. A design team from there wanted to recreate the Daedalus flight from Crete.

Preparations were extraordinary. To build and test the 70 pounds aircraft took 15,000 hours and one million dollars. Five athletes - bicycling champions - were selected and put through rigorous training and endurance tests. The pilot of the craft would pedal a mechanism which operated through two gear boxes and turned an 11-foot, superlight propeller to provide thrust for the craft. The length of the flight and low speed required that the operator maintain a high level of pedalling power for nearly five hours, which is like running two marathons! Even a new drink was invented for the flight to replace the perspiration and minerals sweated off by the pilot.

Finally, at 7:06 A.M. on a sunny Saturday in April 1988, the ultralight Daedalus 88 was propelled down the runway of an airfield in Heraklion, Crete, heading for the volcanic island of Santorini. The pilot and "power'' of the plane was Kanellos Kanellopoulos, 31, winner of 14 Greek national cycling championships.

Helped by a mild tailwind, the plane travelled at a graceful 18.9 miles per hour. Just three hours and 54 minutes after takeoff, the craft approached the beach of Santorini. Suddenly an offshore gust caught the craft bringing it up into a stall and snapping off its tail. The Daedalus plunged into the sea 30 feet from shore. Undaunted, Kanellopoulos swam to shore, the holder of three world human-power flight records:

1. Longest straight-line flight (74 miles). 2. Longest absolute distance flight (74 miles). 3. Duration aloft: 3 hours, 54 minutes.

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