Freedom Eagle
Although he went to school and learned to build airplanes, what Michael O’Connor most wanted to do was fly. He was fascinated by avionics and the development of flight from the time he was a boy, and quickly became a respected, if somewhat maverick, young designer of aircraft. O’Connor worked to push the envelope, dreaming of jet-rockets, ornithopers, and more, but never dreaming of the opportunity that would find its way to him.
At first, he thought the old folio from the junk shop was a reproduction of a da Vinci or similar Renaissance model of flight, but it didn’t match any known drawings. The technical specifications also involved ideas unknown in da Vinci’s day, particularly certain rare-earth elements. On the other hand, the physical design was almost primitive, albeit ingenious, little more than feathers affixed to frameworks with wax. Mike immediately set about seeing if he could improve upon it.
It was little more than a hobby, an affectation on the part of a curious engineer. It became more than that when O’Connor discovered the design really worked! An individual flight system, with speed and maneuverability exceeding most planes. It was the discovery of a lifetime. Unfortunately, certain fifth columnists thought so, too. When they discovered Mike O’Connor’s discovery, they attempted to steal it, and then to extort it from him when that failed. Donning a costume to hide his identity, O’Connor captured the criminals as the Freedom Eagle.
Although the incredible rarity of the element that made the flightsuit work made it impossible to produce in quantity, O’Connor kept his invention a secret to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. He used the power of flight to capture criminals and save people in distress, and responded to the President’s call for mystery men to safeguard the nation when the United States entered the war.
It wasn’t until many years later that Mike O’Connor discovered the notes he built his design from originally belonged to Daedalus (an improvement on the wax-bound wings he built in Ancient Crete). The flight-suit’s gravity-defying element was a small quantity of Daka Crystals from Africa.
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