A compilation and embellishment of about 100 selected Daedalus schemes, which first appeared in New Scientist in the mid-sixties and transferred to Nature in the eighties. The Daedalus pieces harness accepted scientific principles in pursuit of apparently fantastic technical goals. While these flights of fancy are entertaining they have a serious purpose, raising questions in the reader's mind. This collection comprises the selected original article together with a From Daedalus's Notebook piece, written especially for the book, buttressing the proposal with background material, data, calculations, references, and so on, and a cartoon illustration.