THE DELTOID PUMPKIN SEED

What looks like a deltoid pumpkin seed, not quite an airship or an airplane but an "aerobody," figured out by a computer and made of styrofoam, balsa wood and orange silk — this is the Aeron which a special and assorted group of "helium heads" have been trying to get off the ground. McPhee has of course provided the history of wingless flying machines from 100 years ago through the Zeppelins to this private enterprise in Mercer County, New Jersey — a small company which has almost collapsed ("Lazarus at his worst had a stronger pulse"). What makes it particularly interesting is the group of men associated with it: Drew, a Minister of the Fourth Presbyterian Church; William Miller, also a churchman, lonely, self-sufficient, trusting, troubled but quite a persuader — "In selling the stock, he talked the moon"; Fitzpatrick, 22 years in the Navy, a self-taught engineer who pumps gas in an Esso station. Singular indeed, as is the story — a gleam in the visionary eyes of lighter-than-air devotees and McPhee, as always, gives it the benefit of his effortlessly precise and polished reportage.