Gossamer-Albatross | Aircraft | Human Powered Flight - The Gossamer Albatross Gerhardt Cycleplane an unsuccessful human powered plane, from 1920. From the earliest of times man has dreamed of flying by his own means, even Da Vinci had such dreams and made designs as early as 1490. By the 1920s man was able to make successful human powered flight, though never making any great Paris, July 9, 1921: Gabriel Poulin and his Aviette at Longchamps racecourse, where he won 10,000-franc Prix Peugeot, the first prize for human powered flight. distances. The Gerhardt Cycleplane looked like just about any other airplane of the early 1920s except it had seven wings. And then there was Gerhardt's method of propulsion: bicycle power. Since high-aspect ratio wings were the best way to get into the air with lower, bicycle speed drag, the wingspan would need to be longer than a battleship to get the Cycleplane airborne. So Gerhardt divided that wing and came up with seven.

Of course he had to add the drag of all those struts and wires from all those wings. But he forgot all about that. It didn't matter anyway. Built lightly, the Cycleplane's top wings collapsed on its only take-off run. All the way up to modern times we still have had such dreams, and in the late 70's the dream was truly achieved. The Gossamer Albatross, designed by Dr. Paul MacCready, on June 12, 1979 flew across the English Channel piloted and powered by Bryan Allen. MacCready had been designing sail planes since the mid 70s his first major success was the Gossammer Condor which set a distance record of a 1 mile flight in 1977. He took up construction of these planes in response to a challenge made by industrialist Henry Kremer. Two years later another challenge was offered and met with the crossing of the English Channel. Unlike just about any other flying craft, the machines that emerged from MacCready's workshop were built with one aim in mind: to break records.

The first of these the Condor, had a wingspan of 96 feet and was a pusher design, with a large two-bladed propeller mounted at the back and an auxiliary aero foil placed well forward. The pilot sat in an enclosed cabin directly below the main wing. For the record breaking flight which took place at Shafter, California, championship cyclist Bryan Allen was chosen as the pilot. On the hot August day in 1977, he flew the strange-looking Condor between the two pylons in 7 minutes 2.5 seconds. Two years later, with Henry Kremer's challenge to fly across the English Channel, MacCready and his team build an improved version of the Condor, the Albatross. In many respects it was identical to the Condor and once again Bryan Allen piloted it on the journey. He landed at Cap Gris-Nez, near Boulogne, after pedaling 23 miles over the water. The Gossamer Albatross in its record setting 1 hour 9 minutes, and 3 second flight over Harper Dry Lake, California.

To sustain level flight, the MacCready Gossamer Ablatross required at least .25kW of power to the propeller. This factor alone ensured that the pilot had to be at peak fitness in order to complete the cross-Channel trip successfully. Turning took another 20% more power. Overview: The Albatross was powered using pedals to drive a large two-bladed propeller. Piloted by amateur cyclist Bryan Allen, it completed the 22.2 mi crossing in 2 hours and 49 minutes, achieving a top speed of 18 mph and an average altitude of 5 feet. The Gossamer Albatross is of unusual "canard" configuration, using a large horizontal stabilizer forward of the wing in a manner similar to the Wright brothers' successful "Flyer" aircraft. The Gossamer Albatross was constructed using a carbon fiber frame, with the ribs of the wings made with expanded polystyrene; the entire structure was then wrapped in a thin, transparent plastic (mylar aka PET film). The empty mass of the structure was only 71 lb, although the gross mass for the Channel flight was almost 220 lb.

To maintain the craft in the air it was designed with very long tapering wings (high aspect ratio), like those of a glider, allowing the flight to be undertaken with a minimum of power. In still air the required power was of the order of 300 W, though even mild turbulence made this figure rise rapidly. History: The Gossamer Albatross was designed and built by a team led by Paul B. MacCready, a noted US aeronautics engineer, designer, and world soaring A follow-up to the Albatross was the solar-powered Gossamer Penguin (above) in 1980.The Penguin was fragile and not very airworthy, but led to the Solar Challenger champion. Gossamer Albatross was his second human-powered aircraft, the first being the Gossamer Condor, which won the first Kremer prize on August 23, 1977 by completing a specified figure-eight course.

MacCready's team built two Albatrosses; the back-up plane was jointly tested as part of the NASA Langley/Dryden flight research program in 1980 and was also flown inside the Houston Astrodome, the first ever controlled indoor flight by a human-powered aircraft. The Albatross II is currently on display at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington. The aircraft used in the channel crossing is on display at the Smithsonian Institution's Udvar-Hazy Center. Solar-powered variants: The Penguin airframe had been built by the MacCready team as a third craft for the cross-channel attempt; in most of its dimensions it was three-quarters the size of the Gossamer Albatross, and was held in reserve as a speedier if slightly higher-powered alternative to be used if it were found that the Channel weather precluded success by the slower-flying Albatross. . Designed by Paul MacCready, the Solar Challenger had a wingspan of 47 feet and a mass of 198 pounds. Its wings were covered with 16,128 PV cells, with a total output power of 2,600 watts, about enough to drive a pair of hair dryers.

The Solar Challenger was capable of reaching an altitude of 12,000 feet . On July 7, 1981 the aircraft, piloted by Steve Ptacek, accomplished the 163 mile flight from Paris to Manston in the UK. This material is reprinted from the book Gossamer Odyssey by Morton Grosser (Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1981), and is used with the permission of the author. These two Gossamer Albatrosses (Albatrossi?) were built by the designer, Derek Roberts Fiddlersgreen's 'Beta build' Gossamer Albatross - Thanks to Bob Martin So you think you're a great cardmodeler..??!! We've included all the ribs and riblets needed to build this model using Saran Wrap as the covering and dowels for the spars.. Along with a few suggestions hoping to make it easier.. The larger version has a wing span of 36 inches. Why not try it? and while you're at it, install a tiny electric motor and grab a few prizes at the model club. No need to ask permission to reprint as long as its not for sale, OK?

Famous Firsts in Aviation Famous Firsts in Aviation Virgin Atlantic's Globalflyer 1783 First balloon flight. Jacques and Joseph Montgolfier of Annonay, France, sent up a small smoke-filled balloon about mid-November. First hydrogen-filled balloon flight. Jacques A. C. Charles, Paris physicist, supervised construction by A. J. and M. N. Robert of a 13-foot-diameter balloon that was filled with hydrogen. It got up to about 3,000 ft and traveled about 16 mi in a 45-minute flight (Aug. 27). First human balloon flights. A Frenchman, Jean Pilâtre de Rozier, made the first captive-balloon ascension (Oct. 15). With the Marquis d'Arlandes, Pilâtre de Rozier made the first free flight, reaching a peak altitude of about 500 ft, and traveling about 51/2 mi in 20 min. (Nov. 21). 1784 First powered balloon. Gen.

Jean Baptiste Marie Meusnier developed the first propeller-driven and elliptically shaped balloon—the crew cranking three propellers on a common shaft to give the craft a speed of about 3 mph. First balloon flight by a woman. Mme. Thible, a French opera singer (June 4). 1793 First balloon flight in America. Jean Pierre Blanchard, a French pilot, made it from Philadelphia to near Woodbury, N.J., in just over 45 min. (Jan. 9). 1794 First military use of the balloon. Jean Marie Coutelle, using a balloon built for the French Army, made two 4-hour observation ascents. The military purpose of the ascents seems to have been to damage the enemy's morale. 1797 First parachute jump. André-Jacques Garnerin dropped from about 6,500 ft over Monceau Park in Paris in a 23-foot-diameter parachute made of white canvas with a basket attached (Oct. 22). 1843 First air transport company. In London, William S. Henson and John Stringfellow filed articles of incorporation for the Aerial Transit Company (March 24). It failed.

1852 First dirigible. Henri Giffard, a French engineer, flew in a controllable (more or less) steam-engine-powered balloon, 144 ft long and 39 ft in diameter, inflated with 88,000 cu ft of coal gas. It reached 6.7 mph on a flight from Paris to Trappe (Sept. 24). 1860 First aerial photographers. Samuel Archer King and William Black made two photos of Boston, which are still in existence. 1872 First gas-engine-powered dirigible. Paul Haenlein, a German engineer, flew in a semi-rigid-frame dirigible, powered by a 4-cylinder internal-combustion engine running on coal gas drawn from the supporting bag. 1873 First transatlantic attempt. The New York Daily Graphic sponsored the attempt with a 400,000-cubic-foot balloon carrying a lifeboat. A rip in the bag during inflation brought the collapse of the balloon and the project. 1897 First successful metal dirigible.

An all-metal dirigible, designed by David Schwarz, a Hungarian, took off from Berlin's Tempelhof Field and, powered by a 16-horsepower Daimler engine, got several miles before leaking gas caused it to crash (Nov. 13). 1900 First zeppelin flight. Germany's Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin flew the first of his long series of rigid-frame airships. It attained a speed of 18 mph and got 31/2 mi before its steering gear failed (July 2). 1903 First successful heavier-than-air machine flight. Aviation was really born on the sand dunes at Kitty Hawk, N.C., when Orville Wright crawled to his prone position between the wings of the biplane he and his brother Wilbur had built, opened the throttle of their homemade 12-horsepower engine, and took to the air. He covered 120 ft in 12 sec. Later that day, in one of four flights, Wilbur stayed up 59 sec. and covered 852 ft (Dec. 17). 1904 First airplane maneuvers. Orville Wright made the first turn with an airplane (Sept.

15); five days later his brother Wilbur made the first complete circle. 1905 First airplane flight over half an hour. Orville Wright kept his craft up 33 min., 17 sec. (Oct. 4). 1906 First European airplane flight. Alberto Santos-Dumont , a Brazilian, flew a heavier-than-air machine at Bagatelle Field, Paris (Sept. 13). 1908 First airplane fatality. Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge, U.S. Army Signal Corps, was in a group evaluating the Wright plane at Fort Myer, Va. He was up 75 ft with Orville Wright when the propeller hit a bracing wire and was broken, throwing the plane out of control, killing Selfridge and seriously injuring Wright (Sept. 17). 1909 First cross-Channel flight. Louis Blériot flew in a 25-horsepower Blériot VI monoplane from Les Baraques near Calais, France, to Dover Castle, England, in a 26.61-mi (38-kilometer) 37-min. flight across the English Channel (July 25). First International Aviation Competition Meeting.

American Glenn Curtiss narrowly beat France's Louis Blériot in the main event and won the Gordon Bennett Cup. Meet held at Rheims, France (Aug. 22–28). 1910 First licensed woman pilot. Baroness Raymonde de la Roche of France, who learned to fly in 1909, received ticket No. 36 on March 8. First flight from shipboard. Lt. Eugene Ely, USN, took a Curtiss plane off from the deck of the cruiser Birmingham at Hampton Roads, Va., and flew to Norfolk (Nov. 14). The following January he reversed the process, flying from Camp Selfridge to the deck of the armored cruiser Pennsylvania in San Francisco Bay (Jan. 18). First aircraft to take off from water. Henri Fabre in a Gnome-powered floatplane, at Martigues, France (March 28). 1911 First U.S. woman pilot. Harriet Quimby , a magazine writer, got ticket No. 37, making her the first licensed American female pilot. 1912 First woman's cross-Channel flight.

Harriet Quimby flew from Dover, England, across the English Channel and landed at Hardelot, France, in a Blériot monoplane loaned to her by Louis Blériot (April 16). She was later killed in a flying accident over Dorchester Bay during a Harvard-Boston aviation meet on July 1, 1912. First parachute jump from a powered airplane. Albert Berry jumped in a test over Jefferson Barracks military post, St. Louis (March 1). Some sources credit Grant Morton as making first jump in 1911. 1913 First multi-engined aircraft. Built and flown by Igor Ivan Sikorsky while still in his native Russia. 1914 First aerial combat. In Aug., Allied and German pilots and observers started shooting at each other with pistols and rifles—with negligible results. 1915 First air raids on England. German zeppelins dropped bombs on four English communities (Jan. 19). 1917 World's first black combat pilot. Georgia-born Eugene Jacques Bullard , denied entry into the U.S. Army Air Corps because of his race, served throughout World War I in the French Flying Corps.

He received the Legion of Honor, France's highest honor, among many other decorations. 1918 First U.S. air squadron. The U.S. Army Air Corps made its first independent raids over enemy lines, in DH-4 planes (British-designed) powered with 400-hp American-designed Liberty engines (April 8). First regular airmail service. Operated for the Post Office Department by the Army, the first regular service was inaugurated with one round trip a day (except Sunday) between Washington, DC, and New York City (May 15). 1919 First transatlantic flight. The NC-4, one of four Curtiss flying boats commanded by Lt. Comdr. Albert C. Read, reached Lisbon, Portugal (May 27), after hops from Trepassy Bay, Newfoundland, to Horta, Azores (May 16–17), to Ponta Delgada (May 20). The Liberty-powered craft was piloted by Walter Hinton. First nonstop transatlantic flight. Capt. John Alcock and Lt. Arthur Whitten Brown, British World War I flyers, made the 1,900-mile trip from St.

John's, Newfoundland, to Clifden, Ireland, in 16 hr., 12 min. in a Vickers-Vimy bomber with two 350-horsepower Rolls-Royce engines (June 15–16). First lighter-than-air transatlantic flight. The British dirigible R-34, commanded by Maj. George H. Scott, left Firth of Forth, Scotland (July 2), and touched down at Mineola, L.I., 108 hr. later. The eastbound trip was made in 75 hr. (completed July 13). First scheduled London–Paris passenger service (using airplanes). Aircraft Travel and Transport inaugurated London–Paris service (Aug. 25). Later the company started the first trans-Channel mail service on the same route (Nov. 10). First free-fall parachute jump. Leslie Irvin jumped over McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio, to prove that one wouldn't lose consciousness during a delayed free-fall using a manually operated parachute (April 28). 1921 First U.S. black female pilot. Bessie Coleman received license June 15.

She was killed April 30, 1926, in a flying accident. First naval vessel sunk by aircraft. Two battleships being scrapped by treaty were sunk by bombs dropped from Army planes in demonstration put on by Brig. Gen. William S. Mitchell (July 21). First helium balloon. The C-7, nonrigid Navy dirigible was first to use noninflammable helium as lifting gas, making a flight from Hampton Roads, Va., to Washington, D.C. (Dec. 1). 1922 First member of Caterpillar Club. Lt. (later Maj. Gen.) Harold Harris bailed out of a crippled plane he was testing at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio (Oct. 20), and became the first man to join the Caterpillar Club—those whose lives have been saved by parachutes. 1923 First nonstop transcontinental flight. Lts. John A. Macready and Oakley Kelly flew a single-engine Fokker T-2 nonstop from New York to San Diego, a distance of just over 2,500 mi in 26 hr., 50 min. (May 2–3). First autogyro flight.

Juan de la Cierva, a brilliant Spanish mathematician, made the first successful flight in a rotary wing aircraft in Madrid (June 9). 1924 First round-the-world flight. Four Douglas Cruiser biplanes of the U.S. Army Air Corps took off from Seattle under command of Maj. Frederick Martin (April 6). 175 days later, two of the planes (Lt. Lowell Smith's and Lt. Erik Nelson's) landed in Seattle after a circuitous route—one source saying 26,345 mi, another saying 27,553 mi. 1926 First polar flight. Then–Lt. Cmdr. Richard E. Byrd , acting as navigator, and Floyd Bennett as pilot, flew a Trimotor Fokker from Kings Bay, Spitsbergen, over the North Pole and back in 151/2 hr. (May 8–9). 1927 First solo nonstop transatlantic flight. Charles Augustus Lindbergh lifted his Wright-powered Ryan monoplane, Spirit of St. Louis, from Roosevelt Field, N.Y., to stay aloft 33 hr. 39 min.

and travel 3,600 mi to Le Bourget Field outside Paris (May 20–21). Although 91 persons in 13 separate flights crossed the Atlantic before him, he flew directly between two great world cities and did it alone. First transatlantic passenger. Charles A. Levine was piloted by Clarence D. Chamberlin from Roosevelt Field, N.Y., to Eisleben, Germany, in a Wright-powered Bellanca (June 4–5). 1928 First east–west transatlantic crossing. Baron Guenther von Huenefeld, piloted by German Capt. Hermann Koehl and Irish Capt. James Fitzmaurice, left Dublin for New York City (April 12) in a single-engine all-metal Junkersmonoplane. Some 37 hr. later, they crashed on Greely Island, Labrador and were rescued. First transarctic flight. Sir Hubert Wilkins, an Australian explorer, and Carl Ben Eielson, who served as pilot, flew from Point Barrow, Alaska, to Spitsbergen (mid-April). First U.S.–Australia flight. Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith and Capt. Charles T.

P. Ulm, Australians, and two American navigators, Harry W. Lyon and James Warner, crossed the Pacific from Oakland to Brisbane. They went via Hawaii and the Fiji Islands in a trimotor Fokker (May 31–June 8). 1929 First of the endurance records. With Air Corps Maj. Carl Spaatz in command and Capt. Ira Eaker as chief pilot, an Army Fokker, aided by refueling in the air, remained aloft 150 hr. 40 min. at Los Angeles (Jan. 1–7). First round-the-world airship flight. The LZ-127, known as the Graf Zeppelin, flew 21,300 mi in 20 days and 4 hr. Also set distance record (Aug.). First blind flight. James H. Doolittle proved the feasibility of instrument-guided flying when he took off and landed entirely on instruments (Sept. 24). First rocket-engine flight. Fritz von Opel, a German auto maker, stayed aloft in his small rocket-powered craft for 75 sec., covering nearly 2 mi (Sept. 30). First South Pole flight. Comdr.

Richard E. Byrd, with Bernt Balchen as pilot, Harold I. June, radio operator, and Capt. A. C. McKinley, photographer, flew a trimotor Fokker from the Bay of Whales, Little America, over the South Pole and back (Nov. 28–29). 1930 First Paris–New York nonstop flight. Dieudonné Costes and Maurice Bellonte, French pilots, flew a Hispano-powered Breguet biplane from Le Bourget Field to Valley Stream, L.I., in 37 hr., 18 min. (Sept. 2–3). 1931 First flight into the stratosphere. Auguste Piccard , a Swiss physicist, and Charles Knipfer ascended in a balloon from Augsburg, Germany, and reached a height of 51,793 ft in a 17-hr. flight that terminated on a glacier near Innsbruck, Austria (May 27). First nonstop transpacific flight.

Hugh Herndon and Clyde Pangborn took off from Sabishiro Beach, Japan, dropped their landing gear, and flew 4,860 mi to near Wenatchee, Wash., in 41 hr. 13 min. (Oct. 4–5). 1932 First woman's transatlantic solo. Amelia Earhart , flying a Pratt & Whitney Wasp-powered Lockheed Vega, flew alone from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland, to Ireland in approximately 15 hr. (May 20–21). First westbound transatlantic solo. James A. Mollison, a British pilot, took a de Havilland Puss Moth from Portmarnock, Ireland, to Pennfield, New Brunswick (Aug. 18). First woman airline pilot. Ruth Rowland Nichols, first woman to hold three international records at the same time—speed, distance, and altitude—was employed by N.Y.–New England Airways. 1933 First round-the-world solo. Wiley Post took a Lockheed Vega, Winnie Mae, 15,596 mi around the world in 7 days, 18 hr., 491/2 min.

(July 15–22). 1936 First west-east transatlantic solo flight.. Beryl Markham flew a single-engine Vega Gull from London to Nova Scotia in 21 hrs, 25 min. (Sept. 4–5). 1937 First successful helicopter flight. Hanna Reitsch, a German pilot, flew Dr. Heinrich Focke's FW-61 in free, fully controlled flight at Bremen (July 4). Ms. Reitsch was also the first woman civil and military aviation test pilot. First woman known to fly combat. Sabiha Gokcen, Turkish female army pilot, bombed and strafed Kurdish tribesmen during a rebellion. 1939 First turbojet flight. Just before their invasion of Poland, the Germans flew a Heinkel He-178 plane powered by a Heinkel S3B turbojet (Aug. 27). 1940 First wartime use of military gliders. German commandos made a successful glider assault on Belgium's Fort Eben-Emael during WWII (May 10). 1941 The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) creates the Canadian Women's Auxillary Air Force.

The RCAF is the first branch of the Canadian military to accept women. 1941–1945 Most combat missions flown by a pilot in any war. Captain Hans-Ulrich Rudel of Germany flew 2,530 combat missions during WWII while flying a JU-87 Stuka dive bomber. He survived the war. 1942–1945 Top-scoring fighter pilot of any war. German Luftwaffe ace Maj. Erich Hartmann scored 352 victories all while flying a Messerschmitt BF 109 during WWII. He was involved in 800 dogfights, and flew 1,425 missions. Maj. Hartmann survived the war. 1942 First enemy bombing of U.S. mainland. During WWII, a floatplane launched from a Japanese submarine off Cape Blanco, Ore., dropped incendiary bombs on the Oregon forest in two attempts to start forest fires and terrorize American civilians, but the bombs did little damage (Sept. 9 and 29). First woman fighter pilot to shoot down an enemy aircraft.

Soviet Lieutenant Lilya Litvyak, flying a Yak-1 fighter of the women's 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment, shot down two German planes over Stalingrad (Sept. 13). First American jet plane flight. Robert Stanley, chief pilot for Bell Aircraft Corp., flew the Bell XP-59 Airacomet at Muroc Army Base, Calif. (Oct. 1). 1944 First production stage rocket-engine fighter plane. The German Messerschmitt Me 163B Komet (test flown 1941) became operational in June 1944. Some 350 of these delta-wing fighters were built before WWII in Europe ended. 1947 First piloted supersonic flight in an airplane. Capt. Charles E. Yeager , U.S. Air Force, flew the X-1 rocket-powered research plane built by Bell Aircraft Corp., faster than the speed of sound at Muroc Air Force Base, Calif. (Oct. 14). 1949 First round-the-world nonstop flight. Capt. James Gallagher and USAF crew of 13 flew a Boeing B-50A Superfortress around the world nonstop from Ft.

Worth, returning to same point: 23,452 mi in 94 hr., 1 min., with four aerial refuelings en route (Feb. 27–March 2). 1950 First nonstop transatlantic jet flight. Col. David C. Schilling (USAF) flew 3,300 mi from England to Limestone, Maine, in 10 hr., 1 min. (Sept. 22). 1951 First solo across North Pole. Charles F. Blair, Jr., flew a converted P-51 (May 29). 1952 First jetliner service. The De Havilland Comet flight was inaugurated by BOAC between London and Johannesburg, South Africa. Flight, including stops, took 23 hr., 38 min. (May 2). First transatlantic helicopter flight. Capt. Vincent H. McGovern and 1st Lt. Harold W. Moore piloted two Sikorsky H-19s from Westover, Mass., to Prestwick, Scotland (3,410 mi).

Trip was made in five stops, with a flying time of 42 hr., 25 min. (July 15–31). First transatlantic round trip in same day. A British Canberra twin-jet bomber flew from Aldergrove, Northern Ireland, to Gander, Newfoundland, and back in 7 hr., 59 min. flying time (Aug. 26). 1955 First transcontinental round trip in same day. Lt. John M. Conroy piloted an F-86 Sabrejet across U.S. (Los Angeles–New York) and back—5,085 mi—in 11 hr., 33 min., 27 sec. (May 21). 1957 First round-the-world nonstop jet plane flight. Maj. Gen. Archie J. Old, Jr., USAF, led a flight of three Boeing B-52 bombers, powered with eight 10,000-pound-thrust Pratt & Whitney Aircraft J57 engines around the world in 45 hr., 19 min; distance 24,325 mi; average speed 525 mph (completed Jan.

18). 1958 First transatlantic jet passenger service. BOAC, New York to London (Oct. 4). Pan American started daily service, New York to Paris (Oct. 26). First domestic jet passenger service. National Airlines inaugurated service between New York and Miami (Dec. 10). 1963 First female pilot to fly faster than sound. British pilot, Diana Barnato Walker, flew at a speed of 1,262 mph, flying a two-seat R.A.F. Lightning fighter. 1968 Prototype of world's first supersonic airliner. The Soviet-designed Tupolev Tu-144 made its first flight, Dec. 31. It first achieved supersonic speed on June 5, 1969. 1973 First female pilot of a major U.S. scheduled airline. Emily H. Warner became employed by Frontier Airlines on Jan. 29 as second officer on a Boeing 737. 1976 First regularly scheduled commercial supersonic transport (SST) flights begin. Air France and British Airways inaugurated service (Jan. 21).

Air France flew the Paris–Rio de Janeiro route; B.A., the London–Bahrain. Both airlines began SST service to Washington, D.C. (May 24). 1977 First successful human-powered aircraft. Paul MacCready, an aeronautical engineer from Pasadena, Calif., was awarded the Kremer Prize for creating the world's first successful human-powered aircraft. The Gossamer Condor was flown by Bryan Allen over the required 3-mile course on Aug. 23. 1978 First successful transatlantic balloon flight. Three Albuquerque, N.M., men, Ben Abruzzo, Larry Newman, and Maxie Anderson, completed the crossing (Aug. 16.; landed, Aug. 17) in their helium-filled balloon, Double Eagle II. 1979 First man-powered aircraft to fly across the English Channel. The Kremer Prize for the Channel crossing was won by Bryan Allen, who flew the Gossamer Albatross from Folkestone, England, to Cap Gris-Nez, France, in 2 hr., 55 min. (June 12). 1980 First successful balloon flight over the North Pole.

Sidney Conn and his wife, Eleanor, in hot-air balloon Joy of Sound (April 11). First nonstop transcontinental balloon flight, and also record for longest overland voyage in a balloon. Maxie Anderson and his son completed four-day flight from Fort Baker, Calif., to Matane, Quebec, in their helium-filled balloon, Kitty Hawk (May 12). First long-distance solar-powered flight. Janice Brown, a 98-lb former teacher, flew a tiny experimental solar-powered aircraft, Solar Challenger, 6 mi in 22 min. near Marana, Ariz. (Dec. 3). The craft was powered by a 2.75-horsepower engine. 1981 First solar-powered aircraft to fly across the English Channel. Stephen R. Ptacek flew the 210-pound Solar Challenger at an average speed of 30 mph from Cormeilles-en-Vexin near Paris to the Royal Manston Air Force Base in southeast England in 5 hr., 30 min. (July 7). 1984 First solo transatlantic balloon flight. Joe W. Kittinger landed Sept.

18 near Savona, Italy, in his helium-filled balloon, Rosie O'Grady's Balloon of Peace, after a flight of 3,535 mi from Caribou, Maine. 1986 First nonstop flight around the world without refueling. From Edwards AFB, Calif., Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager flew in Voyager around the world (24,986.727 mi), returning to Edwards in 216 hr., 3 min., 44 sec. (Dec. 14–23). 1987 First transatlantic hot-air balloon flight. Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand flew 2,789.6 mi from Sugarloaf Mt., Maine, to Ireland in the hot-air balloon Virgin Atlantic Flyer (July 2–4). 1991 First transpacific hot-air balloon flight. Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand flew about 6,700 mi from Miyakonyo, Japan, to 150 mi west of Yellowknife, Canada (Jan. 15–17). 1993 First woman to copilot a commercial supersonic plane.

Barbara Harmer, British Airways, flew as first officer on the Concorde from London to New York City (March 25). 1995 First solo transpacific balloon flight. Steve Fossett made a flight of more than 5,430 mi from Seoul, South Korea, to Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada, in a helium-filled balloon. Also set record for distance (Feb. 18–21, 1995). 1998 First U.S. female combat pilot to bomb an enemy target. On Dec. 16, Lt. Kendra Williams, USN, bombed enemy targets over Iraq during Operation Desert Fox. 1999 First nonstop round-the-world balloon flight. Bertrand Piccard (Switzerland) and Brian Jones (UK) flew 28,431 mi (45,755 km) from Chateaux d'Oex, Switzerland, to Dakhla, Egypt, in 19 days, 21 hr., and 55 min. (March 1–21). 2001 First solar-powered flight to shatter altitude records.

NASA's solar-powered propeller-driven plane Helios reached an altitude of 96,500 ft during a flight over Hawaii, breaking not only the 80,200-foot record for propeller-driven aircraft, but the 85,068-foot mark for all nonrocket aircraft as well (Aug. 13–14). 2002 First solo nonstop round-the-world balloon flight. Steve Fossett (U.S.) flew from Northam, West Australia, to Lake Yamma Yamma, Queensland, Australia, landing after 14 days, 19 hrs. He broke three balloon records along the way: fastest time around the world, measured by crossing 117° East longitude (13 days, 3 min.), longest distance flown solo (20,483.25 mi; 32,963.35 km), and longest time flown solo (355 hrs, 50 min.) (June 19–July 3). 2004 First non-stop 10,000-mile-plus passenger airline flight.

Singapore Airlines launched a non-stop 181/2 hour, 10,335-mile flight on the long-range Airbus 340-500 between Singapore to Newark, New Jersey (June 28–29). (To date, the world's longest nonstop commercial flight took place on Nov. 10, 2005. A Boeing 777-200LR Worldliner flew from London to Hong Kong [13,422 miles] in 22 hrs, 43 min.) 2005 First nonstop solo flight around the world without refueling. From Salina, Kansas, Steve Fossett flew the Virgin Atlantic Globalflyer 22,878 mi around the world, arriving back in Kansas 67 hrs later (Feb. 28–March 3). 2007 Youngest and first black pilot to fly solo around the world. From Miami Gardens, Florida, Barrington Irving flew a Columbia 400 plane named Inspiration around the world in 96 days, 150 hours (March 23-June 27). Human-powered flight - why are we making it so hard?

- ExtremeTech Comment The best hoaxes mimic unlikely, yet plausible scenarios, and play on our fears or aspirations. Two videos that went viral this year were skillfully created by art students and released on an unsuspecting public. The first was a toddler-snatching golden eagle that had us gaping in horror, while the second (below), featured a human bird wings project that sent many office-bound viewers soaring out of their cubicles. Both videos affirmed, at some level, the human obsession with flight. The second video went further, touching on what we feel at our core to be true — humans can fly under their own power. Though probably not the first to flesh the Icarus myth, Da Vinci wrought the culture of human flight. To really fly — as a bird does — we must abandon the naive and distracting approaches that seemingly work so well for rotary-powered aircraft and embrace the principles that make sound engineering sense given a human’s power and scale. No doubt eagles are strong creatures — Harpy eagles snatch monkeys from Amazonian trees, Martial eagles grab adolescent gazelles from the African savanna, and Golden eagles topple large goats from mountains. How much can they actually lift? As we will see, the obvious questions do not have obvious answers.

An exceptionally large eagle might weigh 25 pounds and have a 9-foot wingspan. It would be conservative to say it could take off easily with an extra 10 pounds and maintain flight with at least double that . This year’s toddler hoax may be a stretch, but certainly not a huge one. So how about the human birdwings hoax? The designers actually built a realistic-looking but hopelessly underpowered machine. A better design was explored some time ago by Douglas George. In his Project Falcon concept, he calculated that a 40-foot wing could produce around 200 pounds of lift at an airspeed of 15 miles per hour. While that would certainly require a very lightly-constructed airframe to accommodate most pilots, with modern materials a 30-pound machine may not be totally out of reach. What really captures the attention though, is the thought of loosely coupling the power of the legs with tendon-like elements to smoothly transition a short take-off jaunt into flight. Several human-powered contraptions have recently received a fair amount of media attention . Pedal-powered helicopters and flapping aircraft have made brief hops and captured incentivizing prizes.

The fixed-wing Gossamer Condor, pedaled across the English channel, appeared almost commuter-ready from the vantage point of one’s armchair. Unfortunately, as viable routes to human-powered flight for the masses, each of these designs ultimately fail at both ends of the power conversion cycle. The methods they use to capture power input from the human source, and the way power output is applied to the air are both hugely inefficient. Combustive machinery, with piston or turbine power prepackaged in rotary form, cannot be the benchmark for human-powered machines. Propellers are the logical mating partner when your mechanical power comes in turning fast and your airspeed is high, but propellers are inefficient — they make highly effective power converters, but only when you have it to spare. As airspeed and propeller speed decreases towards the human-powered regime, propeller size must grow exorbitantly if it is to deliver comparable thrust. At the lower speeds, you need to accelerate the largest air mass possible. At some point, the ideal propeller would begin to approach the size of the wings themselves.

If you already have wings though, why would anyone want to add a propeller full of mass, drag, and the associated destabilizing torque it produces on the aircraft body as it turns against the air? The fixed wings of Gossamer Albatross are certainly too lightly constructed to be flapped — they are also far too light to be safe. If flapping wings move too slowly there will be little gain. At sufficient speeds though, things begin to happen. The difference between a dive and a bellyflop becomes more relevant. If you are turning a propeller, pedals might initially seem appealing — if you want to flap a wing, they are an engineering nightmare. Paul MacCready, 81; built 1st human-powered aircraft - The Boston Globe Obituaries Paul MacCready, 81; built 1st human-powered aircraft Aircraft pioneer Paul MacCready demonstrating his one-gram ornithopter. Dr. MacCready's Gossamer Condor hangs at the Smithsonian Institution. (1999 file/ap) By Eric Malnic, Los Angeles Times | August 31, 2007 LOS ANGELES - Paul B.

MacCready - who created the Gossamer Condor, the first successful human-powered airplane - died in his sleep at his Pasadena home Tuesday. He was 81. AeroVironment Inc., the company he founded, said he had recently been diagnosed with a serious ailment, but the cause of death was not announced. An accomplished meteorologist, a world-class glider pilot, and a respected aeronautical engineer trained at California Institute of Technology, Dr. MacCready headed the team that designed and built the Gossamer Condor and the Gossamer Albatross, two flimsy, awkward-looking planes powered by a furiously-pedaling bicycle racer, which won him international fame and $300,000 in prize money. He also built and flew a radio-controlled replica of a prehistoric pterodactyl, the largest creature that ever took to the air. His successes in these and other imaginative projects led to more than 30 prestigious awards, including the Collier Trophy for achievement in aeronautics and astronautics. There were those who denigrated his efforts, saying they had no practical value. He said his critics missed the point.

"Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic did not directly advance airplane design," Dr. MacCready said. "The plane was a lousy plane. It was unstable, and you couldn't see forward very well. You wouldn't want to design another like it. But it changed the world by being a catalyst for thinking about aviation." Lindbergh's plane, The Spirit of St. Louis, hangs today from a ceiling in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Next to it is Dr. MacCready's Gossamer Condor. His foray into aviation history began as the result of a bad loan. In 1970, Dr. MacCready guaranteed a loan for a friend who wanted to start a business building fiberglass catamarans. When the business failed, Dr. MacCready found himself $100,000 in debt. Casting around for a way to deal with that problem, he recalled a cash prize offered by British industrialist Henry Kremer to anyone who could build a human-powered plane capable of sustained, controlled flight. "The Kremer prize, in which I'd had no interest, was just about equal to my debt," Dr. MacCready said.

"Suddenly, human-powered flight seemed important." To win the prize, he had to come up with an airplane that could take off on its own and fly a figure-eight, 1.15-mile course, clearing 10-foot hurdles at each end. Dr. MacCready said he studied hawks and vultures, calculating the amount of lift needed to keep the birds aloft and comparing that with what he knew about gliders. He concluded that if he could triple the wingspan of a glider without increasing its weight, the power needed to keep it aloft in level flight would be only about two-fifths of a horsepower. He knew a well-conditioned athlete could produce about that and perhaps a little more for extended periods. The spindly, translucent Gossamer Condor that resulted was crafted of aluminum tubing, plastic sheeting, piano wire and Scotch tape. It had a wingspan of 90 feet, but weighed only 70 pounds. The pilot was Bryan Allen, a bicycle racer who powered the single propeller by pedaling a drive chain made largely of old bicycle parts. The bizarre aircraft crashed scores of times during flight tests, but Allen always emerged relatively unscathed. Dr.

MacCready observed dryly that his crash-and-rebuild system worked all right for the Condor, "but it is not the way to develop airliners." Finally, on Aug. 23, 1977, the Condor claimed the Kremer prize, and Dr. MacCready was hailed as the father of human-powered flight. "We're at last achieving a goal that man has had for thousands of years," he said. Within months, Kremer offered a prize of about $213,000 for the first human-powered flight across the English Channel. Dr. MacCready immediately set about improving on the Condor. What emerged was the Gossamer Albatross, which he described as a "next-step clone." The biggest difference was the stronger, lighter frame, made of carbon fiber tubing instead of aluminum. On June 12, 1979, with Allen at the pedals, the Albatross took off from Folkestone, England, and headed east. Fighting off head winds and turbulence for the better part of three hours, Allen overcame cramps and exhaustion to land successfully on the beach at Cap Gris Nez, France, a trip of about 22 miles.

Kremer called it a "splendid achievement" and handed over the prize money. Six months later, Dr. MacCready's ultralight Gossamer Penguin, powered by a 2.75-horsepower motor that ran on electricity generated by solar panels atop the fuselage, skimmed over the Arizona desert in the first climbing flight powered by sunlight. In 1981, a similar plane, Dr. MacCready's Solar Challenger, flew 180 miles from Paris to Kent, England. A few years later, another of his human-powered aircraft, the Bionic Bat, won two more Kremer prizes. In one of his greatest flights of fancy, Dr. MacCready then enlisted the help of engineer Henry Jax to create and fly a wing-flapping, radio-controlled, half-scale replica of a pterodactyl, a creature with a 36-foot wingspan that last soared over Mesozoic landscapes more than 60 million years ago. In 1987, his GM Sunraycer, a streamlined vehicle the size of a soapbox derby entry, easily won a 1,867-mile race in Australia against other, larger solar-powered cars.

Some of his later creations were big, such as the Helios, an unmanned, solar-powered plane with 14 electric motors and a 200-foot wingspan that climbed to more than 96,000 feet, the highest altitude ever achieved by a propeller-driven aircraft. Some were small, such as his surveillance planes, the size of a man's hand, that carried tiny TV cameras. Some didn't work, such as a little plane powered by a hamster. "Hamsters are lazy," he lamented. A native of New Haven, Conn., Dr. MacCready leaves his wife, Judy; three sons, Parker, Tyler, and Marshall; and two grandchildren. © Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company. The Flying Dutchman: Teen Takes to the Skies in Pedal-Powered Plane - SPIEGEL ONLINE The Flying Dutchman: Teen Takes to the Skies in Pedal-Powered Plane The Flying Dutchman Teen Takes to the Skies in Pedal-Powered Plane At the tender age of 16, Jesse van Kuijk already knew he wanted to fly. But he didn't take flying lessons or train as a flight attendant.

Instead, he built his own pedal-powered aircraft and became one of a select group of people to take to the skies under their own steam. August 12, 2009 05:10 PM Feedback Jesse van Kuijk loves his sister. But lend her his airplane? No way. He's worked too hard and too long on the muscle-powered aircraft -- he's its developer, builder and pilot. Van Kuijk even turned down a plan pushed by his sponsors to let a pro cyclist climb on the pedal-powered aircraft he was building for the first flight. When asked questions like, "Can I have a go?," the thin, amiable, 19-year-old Dutchman turns tough. There is absolutely no way, he says -- no one else is going flying this machine. No way. And that's that. Van Kuijk lives in a small provincial Dutch town called Budel, 25 kilometers south of Eindhoven and 35 kilometers (15.5 miles) west of the German border. And the best thing about Budel -- according to van Kuijk, anyway -- is its small airport.

It's just 10 minutes away from his family home and by the tender age of 16 van Kuijk had already made up his mind: He wanted to fly. His friends were ambivalent, but the gawky youth was convinced he could do it. Not only that, he was certain he could take to the skies under his own muscle. Outer space, airplanes, tornadoes and windmills (he is Dutch, after all) had always fascinated him. Without ever even having been on a plane, he began to read about the subject. He read about the "Mufli," -- short for the German phrase, "muskelkraft flieger," which means muscle-powered aircraft -- that two German engineers shot into the Berlin skies in the 1930s. He read about the Gossamer Condor, which in 1977 became the first human-powered aircraft to fly a figure eight. The Gossamer Condor flew almost 2.2 kilometers and, in the process, won the very first Kremer prize of £50,000 pounds (58,000).

The prize was established by industrialist Henry Kremer in 1959 to reward pioneers in human-powered flight, but it took 18 years before anyone claimed it. A Plane Made Out Of Balsa And Polyurethane The lanky Dutch student also studied the Reynolds number, which describes the ratio of inertial forces to viscous forces, an essential figure for air flight. He also happily studied fluid mechanics. Without these, nothing on earth flies -- not birds, not an Airbus and certainly not van Kuijk. Reprints Find out how you can reprint this SPIEGEL ONLINE article. Dates pour out of him as he relates the history of human-powered flight. The year 1979 was another landmark: Another craft, dubbed the Gossamer Albatross, made a successful flight over the English Channel, flying over 35 kilometers in less than three hours. The Gossamer Albatross was flown by American Bryan Allen, who now works in California as a software engineer for the Mars exploration project. Van Kuijk contacted Allen and the two exchanged emails about van Kuijk's dream of self-powered flight. In 2006, with his calculations complete, van Kuijk began to collect building materials.

For over three years he gathered extremely light balsa wood, polyurethane and the light, rip-resistant foil that would eventually line the craft's 26-meter-wide (85 feet) wings. And then he built what he had designed. "A few people thought I should have made a model first," van Kuijk says. But model building wasn't his thing. Besides, he had calculated everything, there were plenty of examples he could look at and he didn't want to waste any time. He was sure the thing would fly. Finally, last Sunday, there it was: seven meters long, four meters high, the collapsible construction that van Kuijk and his parents had to put together at Kempen airport. It took three hours to set up. Not until the afternoon would airport officials tell him the conditions were good for flying, with no rain or wind forecast. And he could only make his attempt at man-powered flight after eight o'clock at night anyway, after the local flying club had left the small runway. Warming Up For The Flight On a Bicycle Shortly beforehand, Van Kuijk warmed up for his attempt, cycling in circles on an ordinary bike at the end of the runway.

He wore a cycling helmet and on his skinny arms, black foam elbow protectors. He would accelerate the aircraft using a long bicycle chain, attached at a 90 degree angle to a red propeller. Oddly, the whole thing -- all balsa wood, aluminum and plastic wrap -- looked most like a giant version of some airplane enthusiast's miniature model. Just making the three-meter-long rotor took 35 hours. The rotor will be powered by van Kuijk's legs, which will be cycling as fast as they can for liftoff. When van Kuijk started the whole project in 2006 it was already clear to him that it would take some time and that he would probably put on some weight before he was ready to fly. He estimated he might weigh as much as 70 kilos (154 pounds) by the time the plane was ready. Today he weighs a feather light 53 kilos, three kilos less than his pedal-powered aircraft. Last year van Kuijk studied aerospace engineering at a technical university in Delft, 150 kilometers away. But every weekend he would come home to Budel to work on his aircraft. The moment finally arrived.

Van Kuijk took his place aboard his craft, placed the helmet on his head. Behind him, a nephew supported the aluminum and wood construction. Two men held the wings horizontal -- just in case it got windy or the vehicle became unbalanced. Van Kuijk put his foot down and began to pedal. The propeller begans to turn. The aircraft moved forwards. "The Earth Under My Feet Slipped Away" And then suddenly, unbelievably, "the earth under my feet slipped away," van Kuijk exclaimed afterwards. He was flying! Alone, under his own power and in the aircraft he had designed and built. His aircraft flew, he had always known it would. But he could barely believe he had actually managed to defeat gravity's pull. Then he felt a jolt. The bicycle chain quietly slipped off the cog. The red motor trundled to a stop. "And I couldn't accelerate any further," van Kuijk expained. Seconds after he lifted off, he sank back to the ground again. Altitude: 1.5 meters (about 5 feet). Distance: maybe 10 or 15 meters. Then, with a crash, his aircraft touched back down on the small, country runway.

It didn't seem to matter too much to van Kuijk though. He looked around him, up at the airport buildings, toward the control tower. Then he smiled a very big smile. This Dutchman can fly. Article...

Question: What was the name of the craft that made a man powered flight over the Channel in 1979
Answer: Gossamer Albatross