Double Eagle: Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson, Larry Newman - Hardcover

"A book that will tell us something inspiring about the human spirit: why men - and maybe why Americans in particular - will risk death to prove to themselves and to the world that men can do anything they choose to do." - Charles McCarry Double Eagle is the riveting, true account of the first flight across the Atlantic Ocean by men in a balloon - by all reckonings one of the most extraordinary human adventures of all time. The 1978 voyage by Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson, and Larry Newman, three self-made businessmen from Albuquerque, New Mexico, is a tale of supreme courage, endurance, ingenuity, and the all-powerful drive for glory. One of the world's most dangerous physical challenges, the transatlantic balloon voyage was a goal that defied success - all sixteen previous attempts had failed, with five lives lost. No one who had once attempted the flight had ever wanted to try again. In Double Eagle (the huge, helium craft was named Double Eagle after Charles Lindbergh, the Lone Eagle) Charles McCarry and the balloonists chronicle the initial attempt made by Abruzzo and Anderson in 1977, which ended in bitter failure, and the second, triumphant voyage in Double Eagle II a year later. McCarry draws incisive portraits of the fascinating and complex heroes, revealing both the tensions they endured and the comradeship they shared in the tiny gondola that drifted thousands of feet above the surface of the earth. Here, too, are descriptions of the otherworldly beauty of the skies and of the strange and exhilarating sensations of balloon travel. Also detailed are the meticulous meteorological calculations, the technical wizardry, and the remarkable coordinating efforts of Double Eagle's ground