In Greek mythology, Daedalus was a skillful craftsman and artisan. He is the father of Icarus and set to work to fabricate wings for himself and his son to escape from Crete, but the young hero ascended too close to the sun and it softened the wax which held the feathers of his wings together and they came off.

Icarus fell into the sea and drowned.

On regard scientific ballooning, the name refers to the original denomination that would have the first manned balloon project, envisoned originally by Dr. John Stapp of the Aeromedical Field Research Laboratory. The objective was to raise a human being in a sealed capsule into a space-equivalent environment above 99 percent of Earth's atmosphere, and leave it there for a twenty-four hour period.

When the name was presented to the higher command of the US Air Force, he was told that the service already had a programme by that name in operation, and that it was highly classified.

Therefore they gave the program a more simple and descriptive name: Manhigh