page_title: Enea Bossi Sr.
section_title: Pedaliante
hierarchical_section_title: Enea Bossi Sr. / Professional career / Pedaliante
caption_attribution_description: English: A portrait of Italian-American aerospace engineer and aviation pioneer Enea Bossi sr, in the 1930s. Italiano: Ritratto dell'ingegnere italoamericano e pioniere dell'aviazione Enea Bossi sr, negli anni Trenta.
context_page_description: Enea Bossi Sr. was an Italian-American aerospace engineer and aviation pioneer. He is best known for designing the Budd BB-1 Pioneer, the first stainless steel aircraft; and also the Pedaliante airplane, disputably credited with the first fully human-powered flight.
context_section_description: In 1932, Bossi heard of an airplane which had successfully flown while powered only by a 1-horsepower (0.75 kW) engine. This prompted Bossi to calculate the minimum power that a manned aircraft would need to fly. The calculation yielded a value of approximately 0.94-horsepower (0.70 kW), which convinced Bossi that Human-powered flight might be possible. During a trip to Philadelphia, Bossi tested the speed at which a glider would take off under tow. The experiment consisted of hiring a professional bicyclist to tow a glider. A spring scale was attached to the tow line to sense the force exerted by the bicyclist. This same experiment procedure was later repeated as part of the development of the Gossamer Condor and the Gossamer Albatross. The results confirmed that a speed at which the necessary lift could be obtained was indeed attainable.
  A second experiment conducted during a trip to Paris involved a propeller-driven bicycle designed by Bossi. The test rider achieved a speed of 23 miles (37 km) per hour, but one drawback was noted: the gyroscopic effect of the propeller generated so much torque that the bicycle became unstable. Bossi concluded, erroneously, that a successful human-powered aircraft would therefore require two counter-rotating propellers to cancel out the effects of torque – similar to the design of a helicopter. In light of these findings, Bossi decided to design an aircraft incorporating this difficult requirement.
  In 1933, the Frankfurt Polytechnische Gesellschaft (Frankfurt Polytechnic Society) offered a prize to promote human-powered flight. Due to the newly-formed Rome-Berlin axis, similar political and military events were staged during the initial period in both Italy and Germany to help strengthen that bond. To this end, in 1936, the Italian government initiated an equivalent contest: offering 100,000 lire for a 1 km (0.62 mi) human-powered flight made by an Italian citizen. Bossi was aware that he could not receive the prize due to his American citizenship, but he opted to attempt to win it, anyway.
  Bossi's design for the contest was named the Pedaliante, Italian for “Pedal Glider” – so named because it utilized conventional glider configuration and construction.  The design was introduced in 1937 and Vittorio Bonomi, an Italian sailplane manufacturer, was contracted to build the plane.  Bossi and Bonomi enlisted Emilio Casco to pilot the Pedaliante. Casco was a major in the Italian Army and a very strong bicyclist. After several weeks of trials in early 1936, Casco took off in the Pedaliante and flew approximately 300 feet (91.4 m) completely under his own power, marking the first achievement of an aircraft obtaining and sustaining flight completely via human power. Although subsequent calculations have verified that this flight was physically possible, most agree that it was Casco's considerable physical strength and endurance which performed the accomplishment; not a feat which could be attained by a typical person.
  Incorporating a catapult launch to a height of 30 feet (9 m), the Pedaliante made a flight on 13 September 1936 which traveled several hundred meters.  On 18 March 1937, at Cinisello airport near Milan, the plane was launched at a height of 29.5 feet (9 m) and Casco successfully pedaled the craft for its full 0.62 miles (1 km).  This set a world record for human-powered flight, but as a catapult launch was not permitted in the rules of the competition, the Pedaliante did not win the prize for which it was designed. The plane was retired the following year having made a total 80 flights – 43 without the assistance of a catapult launch.  At this time, the Mufli and the Pedaliante were the most advanced Human-powered aircraft ever built.
caption: Enea Bossi in the 1930s
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