Escape from Gravity
** watch future Linda Hall Library lectures live at new.livestream.com/lindahall ** October 4, 2018, the Main Reading Room of the Linda Hall Library. The event: Erik Lindbergh’s lifelong quest to Escape From Gravity has ranged from aviation to sports, a second chance at life, dreams of spaceflight and beyond. An avid pilot, Erik holds commercial, instrument, flight instructor, and glider ratings. In 1996, he helped launch the XPRIZE Foundation in St. Louis. In 2002 Erik retraced his grandfather’s epic 1927 New York to Paris solo flight, raising over a million dollars and 500 million pre-social media impressions for XPRIZE. This 9-year “overnight success” story helped to jump-start the private spaceflight industry and is detailed in the New York Times bestselling book: How to Make a Space Ship by Julian Guthrie. In 2011 Erik awarded the Lindbergh Prize for Quietest Aircraft at the NASA Green Flight Challenge and, inspired by the potential for aviation, created Powering Imagination to help accelerate the development of the electric aircraft industry and inspire the next generation of innovators. After nearly a decade working on this industry, Erik and his partners have started a new company called VerdeGo Aero to build electric vertical take off and landing (eVTOL) personal air taxis which will transform the way people move around the planet. Erik’s story is one of triumph over adversity. He won the Washington state gymnastics championship at age 11 and excelled in water-skiing, and alpine and telemark ski racing during his teens. After climbing and skiing Mount Rainier at age 21, he was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and by age 30 was completely disabled. Total knee replacements and a breakthrough biotechnology drug gave him a second chance at living a physically active life. Inspired by nature, he is an expert mountain biker and backcountry skier and has been creating unique furniture and sculpture designs for over 25 years. Video produced by The VideoWorks of Roeland Park, Kansas.
