"The Maiden Flight of McCauley's Bellerophon"
is a science fiction/magical realism novella
by American writer Elizabeth Hand.
It was first published in the Neil Gaiman/Al
Sarrantonio-edited anthology Stories: All-New
Tales, in 2010, and subsequently republished
in Hand's 2012 anthology Errantry: Strange
Stories from Small Beer Press.
== Synopsis ==
An aviation historian is terminally ill; as
a last gift, her friends decide to falsify
evidence that will support her personal theory
regarding the invention of flight.
== Reception ==
"Maiden Flight" won the 2011 World Fantasy
Award for Best Novella, and was nominated
for the 2011 Hugo Award for Best Novella and
the 2011 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial AwardTheodora
Goss calls it "simple on one level and intensely
complicated on another.
And beautiful, and a joy to read," while the
Portland Press Herald describes it as "bittersweet"
and "magical", and Roz Kaveney judges it as
"possibly the best" story in the anthology
