Human-powered aircraft
Encyclopedia
A human-powered aircraft (HPA) is an aircraft
Aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...

 powered by direct human energy and the force of gravity; the thrust
Thrust
Thrust is a reaction force described quantitatively by Newton's second and third laws. When a system expels or accelerates mass in one direction the accelerated mass will cause a force of equal magnitude but opposite direction on that system....

 provided by the human may be the only source; however, a hang glider that is partially powered by pilot power
Power (physics)
In physics, power is the rate at which energy is transferred, used, or transformed. For example, the rate at which a light bulb transforms electrical energy into heat and light is measured in watts—the more wattage, the more power, or equivalently the more electrical energy is used per unit...

 is a human-powered aircraft where the flight path can be enhanced more than if the hang glider had not been assisted by human power
Human power
Human power is work or energy that is produced from the human body. It can also refer to the power of a human. Power comes primarily from muscles, but body heat is also used to do work like warming shelters, food, or other humans....

. Likewise, HPA inevitably experience assist from thermals or rising air currents. Pure HPA do not use hybrid flows of energy (solar energy, wound rubber band, fuel cell
Fuel cell
A fuel cell is a device that converts the chemical energy from a fuel into electricity through a chemical reaction with oxygen or another oxidizing agent. Hydrogen is the most common fuel, but hydrocarbons such as natural gas and alcohols like methanol are sometimes used...

, etc.) for thrust. In nil wind, a flatland-long-gliding aircraft is a form of HPA where the thrust in the nil wind is provided by the running of the pilot; when the pilot loses touch with the ground, his or her thrust ceases to add energy
Energy
In physics, energy is an indirectly observed quantity. It is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems...

 to the flight system and a glide
Gliding
Gliding is a recreational activity and competitive air sport in which pilots fly unpowered aircraft known as gliders or sailplanes using naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to remain airborne. The word soaring is also used for the sport.Gliding as a sport began in the 1920s...

 begins; the pilot may or may not add energy after the pilot stops touching the ground. Humans who tow up a manned kite form one type of human-powered aircraft.

Early attempts at human-powered flight were unsuccessful because of the difficulty of achieving the high power-to-weight ratio
Power-to-weight ratio
Power-to-weight ratio is a calculation commonly applied to engines and mobile power sources to enable the comparison of one unit or design to another. Power-to-weight ratio is a measurement of actual performance of any engine or power sources...

. Prototypes often used ornithopter
Ornithopter
An ornithopter is an aircraft that flies by flapping its wings. Designers seek to imitate the flapping-wing flight of birds, bats, and insects. Though machines may differ in form, they are usually built on the same scale as these flying creatures. Manned ornithopters have also been built, and some...

 principles which were not only too heavy to meet this requirement but aerodynamically unsatisfactory.

As of 2008, human-powered aircraft have been successfully flown over considerable distances. However, they are primarily constructed as an engineering challenge rather than for any kind of recreational or utilitarian purpose.

The Royal Aeronautical Society Human Powered Flight Group

The Royal Aeronautical Society
Royal Aeronautical Society
The Royal Aeronautical Society, also known as the RAeS, is a multidisciplinary professional institution dedicated to the global aerospace community.-Function:...

's 'Man Powered Aircraft Group' was formed in 1959 by the members of the Man Powered Group of the College of Aeronautics at Cranfield
Cranfield
Cranfield is a village and civil parish in north west Bedfordshire, England, between Bedford and Milton Keynes. It has a population of 4,909, and is in Central Bedfordshire District....

 when they were invited to join the Society. Its title was changed from 'Man' to 'Human' in 1988 because of the many successful flights made by female pilots.

Under the auspices of the Society, in 1959 the industrialist Henry Kremer offered the Kremer Prizes
Kremer prizes
The Kremer prizes are a series of monetary awards, established in 1959 by the industrialist Henry Kremer, that are given to pioneers of human-powered flight. The competitions and prize awards are administered by the Royal Aeronautical Society's Human Powered Aircraft Group. .The first Kremer prize...

 of £50,000 for the first human-powered aeroplane to fly a figure-of-eight course round two markers half-a-mile apart.

First attempts

An early human-powered aircraft was the Gerhardt Cycleplane
Gerhardt Cycleplane
-External links:* at British Pathe...

, developed by W. Frederick Gerhardt at McCook Field
McCook Field
McCook Field was an airfield and aviation experimentation station operated by the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps and its successor the United States Army Air Service from 1917-1927...

 in Dayton, Ohio
Dayton, Ohio
Dayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...

 in 1923. The aircraft had seven wings stacked nearly 15 feet (4.6 m) high. The pilot peddled a bicycle gear that turned the propeller. In early tests the aircraft was towed into the air by an automobile, and released. With Gerhardt as the pilot, the Cycleplane was able to maintain stable, level flight for short durations. Its only human-powered takeoff was a short hop of 20 feet (6.1 m) with the craft rising 2 foot (0.6096 m).

In 1934 Engelbert Zaschka
Engelbert Zaschka
Engelbert Zaschka was a German chief engineer, chief designer and inventor. Zaschka became one of the first German helicopter pioneers. He is a striking representative of the Rotationsflugzeug...

 from Germany completed a large human-powered aircraft, the Zaschka Human-Power Aircraft. On 11 July 1934 the Zaschka-HPA flew about 20 meters on the Berlin Tempelhof Airport; the HPA took off without assisted takeoff.

A craft called HV-1 Mufli (Muskelkraft-Flugzeug) built by Helmut Hässler and Franz Villinger (de)
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

first flew on 30 August 1935: a distance of 235 metres at Halle an der Saale
Halle, Saxony-Anhalt
Halle is the largest city in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is also called Halle an der Saale in order to distinguish it from the town of Halle in North Rhine-Westphalia...

. 120 flights were made, the longest being 712 metres in 1937. However it was launched using a tensioned cable
Catapult
A catapult is a device used to throw or hurl a projectile a great distance without the aid of explosive devices—particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines. Although the catapult has been used since ancient times, it has proven to be one of the most effective mechanisms during...

 and so was not strictly human-powered.

A team of Enea Bossi
Enea Bossi, Sr.
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.-Personal life:Enea Bossi was...

 (designer), Vittorio Bonomi (builder), and Emilio Casco (pilot) met a challenge by the Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 Government for a flight of one kilometre using their Pedaliante in March 1937. The aircraft apparently flew short distances fully under human power, but the distances were not significant enough to win the competition's prize. Furthermore there has been much dispute as to whether it ever took off under the pedal-power of the pilot alone, in particular because there is no record of official observation of it having done so. Some of the arguments for and against the validity of Bossi's claim to have done so are presented by Sherwin (1976). At the time the fully human-powered flights were deemed to be a result of the pilot's significant strength and endurance; and ultimately not attainable by a typical human. As with the HV-1 Mufli, additional attempts were therefore made using a catapult system. By being catapulted to a height of 9 metres (30 ft), the aircraft met the distance requirement of 1 kilometre (0.621372736649807 mi) but was declined the prize due to the launch method.

First flights

The first officially authenticated take-off and landing of a man powered aircraft (one capable of powered take-offs, unlike a glider) was made on 9 November 1961 by Derek Piggott
Derek Piggott
Alan Derek Piggott MBE is one of Britain's best known glider pilots and instructors. His flying career has been long and varied. He first flew in an Avro 504 as a passenger at the age of four...

 in Southampton University's Man Powered Aircraft (SUMPAC
SUMPAC
-See also:-Bibliography:* Guttery, T.E. The Shuttleworth Collection. London: Wm. Carling & Co, 1969. SBN 901319-01-5*...

) at Lasham Airfield
Lasham Airfield
Lasham Airfield is located north-west of Alton in Hampshire, England, in the village of Lasham.It was built in 1942 and it was an operational RAF during the Second World War. It was used for recreational gliding from 1951. The airfield is now owned by the world's largest gliding club, Lasham...

. The best flight out of 40 tried was 650 metres. The SUMPAC was substantially rebuilt by Imperial College with a new transmission system but was damaged beyond repair in November 1965.

The Hatfield Puffin first flew in 16 November 1961, one week after SUMPAC. The Hatfield Man Powered Aircraft Club was formed of employees of de Havilland Aircraft Company and had access to company support. Eventually its best distance was 908 metres. John Wimpenny landed in a state of physical exhaustion. His record stood for 10 years.

Puffin 2 was a new fuselage and wing around the transmission recovered from the original Puffin. It flew on 27 August 1965 and made several flights over a half-mile, including a climb to 5.2 metres. In 1967 Kremer increased his prize money tenfold to £500,000, for no-one had even attempted his challenging course. He also opened the competition to all nationalities as it had previously been restricted to British entries only.
After Puffin 2 was damaged it was handed over to Liverpool University who used it to build the Liverpuffin

After this date several less successful aircraft flew, until 1972 when the Jupiter flew 1,070 metres and 1,239 metres in June 1972.
In early 1977, a Japanese aircraft - Stork - completed three-quarters of the course before grounding a wingtip.
On 23 August 1977 the Gossamer Condor
Gossamer Condor
-See also:-Further reading:*Morton Grosser. Gossamer Odyssey: The Triumph of Human-Powered Flight. MBI Press, 2004; Dover Publications, Inc., 1991; Houghton Mifflin Co., 1981*Morton Grosser. On Gossamer Wings. York Custom Graphics, 1982...

 2 flew the first figure-eight, a distance of 2,172 metres winning the first Kremer prize. It was built by Dr Paul B. MacCready
Paul MacCready
Paul B. MacCready, Jr. was an American aeronautical engineer. He was the founder of AeroVironment and the designer of the human-powered aircraft that won the Kremer prize...

. and piloted by amateur cyclist and hang-glider pilot Bryan Allen. Although slow, cruising at only 11 mph, it achieved that speed with only 0.35 hp.

Later flights

The second Kremer prize of £100,000 was won on June 12, 1979, again by Paul MacCready, when Bryan Allen flew MacCready's Gossamer Albatross
Gossamer Albatross
-See also:-Further reading:*Allen, Bryan. Winged Victory of "Gossamer Albatross". National Geographic, November 1979, vol. 156, n. 5, p. 640-651...

 from England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

: a straight distance of 35.82 km (22 miles 453 yards) in 2 hours, 49 minutes.

A Kremer prize of £20,000 for speed went on 1 May 1984 to a design team of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

 for flying their MIT Monarch B craft on a triangular 1.5 km course in under three minutes (for an average speed of 32 km/h): pilot Frank Scarabino. Further prizes of £5,000 are awarded to each subsequent entrant improving the speed by at least five percent.

The first human-powered passenger flight occurred on 1 October 1984 when Holger Rochelt carried his sister Katrin in Musculair 1.

The current distance record recognised by the FAI
Fédération Aéronautique Internationale
The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale is the world governing body for air sports and aeronautics and astronautics world records. Its head office is in Lausanne, Switzerland. This includes man-carrying aerospace vehicles from balloons to spacecraft, and unmanned aerial vehicles...

 was achieved on 23 April 1988 from Iraklion on Crete
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...

 to Santorini
Santorini
Santorini , officially Thira , is an island located in the southern Aegean Sea, about southeast from Greece's mainland. It is the largest island of a small, circular archipelago which bears the same name and is the remnant of a volcanic caldera...

 in an MIT Daedalus 88
MIT Daedalus
The MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics Department's Daedalus was a human-powered aircraft that, on 23 April 1988, flew a distance of 71.5 mi in 3 hours, 54 minutes, from Iraklion on the island of Crete to the island of Santorini...

 piloted by Kanellos Kanellopoulos: a straight distance of 115.11 km (71.5 mi).

In 2010, the DUT Icarus 001
DUT Icarus 001
The DUT Icarus 001 is a concept human powered aircraft, to be built from the cooperation between the Delft University of Technology and the Movement Science Faculty of the University of Maastricht....

 was another concept human powered aircraft. However, due to financial reasons, the project was halted.

Another human-powered aircraft was Todd Reichert's Snowbird.

On 10 December 1989 the first human-powered helicopter
Human powered helicopter
A human-powered helicopter is a helicopter designed to carry at least one person but limited to using only what power is provided by the person on board, usually by pedalling. A high power-to-weight ratio is needed as in all helicopters. Such aircraft must be light and must have efficient rotary...

, the California Polytechnic State University
California Polytechnic State University
California Polytechnic State University, or Cal Poly, is a public university located in San Luis Obispo, California, United States. The university is one of two polytechnic campuses in the 23-member California State University system....

 Da Vinci III, flew for 7.1 seconds and reached a height of 20 cm.

The current world record for human powered helicopter
Human powered helicopter
A human-powered helicopter is a helicopter designed to carry at least one person but limited to using only what power is provided by the person on board, usually by pedalling. A high power-to-weight ratio is needed as in all helicopters. Such aircraft must be light and must have efficient rotary...

 is held by a craft named Yuri I, built by a team from the Nihon Aero Student Group (NASG). In 1994, it achieved a height of 20 cm for 19.46 seconds unassisted and unofficially reached 70 cm during a flight lasting 24 seconds.

Current activity

Machines have been built and flown in the United States, Japan, Germany, Greece, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Austria, Canada, Singapore and the United Kingdom, with their total number approaching a hundred.

With further funds from the late Henry Kremer, the Royal Aeronautical Society
Royal Aeronautical Society
The Royal Aeronautical Society, also known as the RAeS, is a multidisciplinary professional institution dedicated to the global aerospace community.-Function:...

 has announced four new prizes:
  • £50,000 for the Kremer International Marathon Competition for a flight round a specified twenty six mile Marathon distance course, in a time of under one hour,
  • £100,000 for the Kremer International Sporting Aircraft Competition for a sporting aeroplane able to operate in normal weather conditions, as encountered in the United Kingdom
  • £1,000 for the Schools Competition
  • £500 for The Robert Graham Competition for students for experimental research or engineering design


The eventual aim is to achieve Olympic
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

 recognition as a sport.

There are at least four current attempts underway to claim the £100,000 Kremer Sport prize. One team from Virginia Polytechnic Institute has been active for a number of years designing an aircraft as part of their AE4065/6 class; recent attempts to assemble a wing structure had resulted in critical failure. A second team from the Pennsylvania State University
Pennsylvania State University
The Pennsylvania State University, commonly referred to as Penn State or PSU, is a public research university with campuses and facilities throughout the state of Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1855, the university has a threefold mission of teaching, research, and public service...

 is designing and constructing the PSU Zephyrus
PSU Zephyrus
|-See also:-References:Bramesfeld, G. and M. Maughmer, “The Penn State Sailplane Project - The First Decade”, Pennsylvania State University,20th AIAA Applied Aerodynamics Conference, St. Louis, Missouri, June 24-26, 2002....

 as part of their AERSP 404H
AERSP 404H
AERSP 404H is offered by the Pennsylvania State University as Flight Vehicle Design and Fabrication II, as an upper-level engineering design and capstone course. This course receives funding as a member of the Space Grant Colleges and Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium...

 class. A third team from the Aeronautics Department at Imperial College London
Imperial College London
Imperial College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom, specialising in science, engineering, business and medicine...

 is undertaking the premise of Human Powered Flight for one of their 3rd Year Group Design Projects, to investigate its feasibility in the sporting world. Finally, the fourth team consists of 10 MEng students from the University of Southampton
University of Southampton
The University of Southampton is a British public university located in the city of Southampton, England, a member of the Russell Group. The origins of the university can be dated back to the founding of the Hartley Institution in 1862 by Henry Robertson Hartley. In 1902, the Institution developed...

 and who are designing and constructing the SUHPA .

Airships

Inventors have built human-powered airship
Airship
An airship or dirigible is a type of aerostat or "lighter-than-air aircraft" that can be steered and propelled through the air using rudders and propellers or other thrust mechanisms...

s. By gaining lift
Lift (force)
A fluid flowing past the surface of a body exerts a surface force on it. Lift is the component of this force that is perpendicular to the oncoming flow direction. It contrasts with the drag force, which is the component of the surface force parallel to the flow direction...

 through buoyancy
Buoyancy
In physics, buoyancy is a force exerted by a fluid that opposes an object's weight. In a column of fluid, pressure increases with depth as a result of the weight of the overlying fluid. Thus a column of fluid, or an object submerged in the fluid, experiences greater pressure at the bottom of the...

 instead of air flowing past an airfoil
Airfoil
An airfoil or aerofoil is the shape of a wing or blade or sail as seen in cross-section....

, much less effort is required to power the aircraft.

See also

  • Human-powered transport
    Human-powered transport
    Human-powered transport is the transport of person and/or goods using human muscle power. Like animal-powered transport, human-powered transport has existed since time immemorial in the form of walking, running and swimming...

  • Solar-powered aircraft
  • Zero-emissions vehicle
    Zero-emissions vehicle
    A zero-emissions vehicle, or ZEV, is a vehicle that emits no tailpipe pollutants from the onboard source of power. Harmful pollutants to the health and the environment include particulates , hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, ozone, lead, and various oxides of nitrogen. Although not considered emission...

  • Human-powered helicopter
  • Controllable slope soaring
    Controllable slope soaring
    Controllable-slope soaring is a type of slope soaring where a slope is made to follow the airplane in gliding flight, both sustaining and controlling the airplane's trajectory by modifying the wind in the vicinity of the airplane. A controllable slope is any object which can be used to affect the...

  • Ornithopter
    Ornithopter
    An ornithopter is an aircraft that flies by flapping its wings. Designers seek to imitate the flapping-wing flight of birds, bats, and insects. Though machines may differ in form, they are usually built on the same scale as these flying creatures. Manned ornithopters have also been built, and some...

  • List of Human-powered aircraft

External links


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