Human-powered aircraft
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A human-powered aircraft (HPA) is an aircraft belonging to the class of vehicles known as human-powered transport.
As its name suggests, HPAs have the pilot not only steer, but power the aircraft (usually propeller-driven) by means of a system similar to a bicycle or tricycle: a pair of pedals, moved by the pilot's feet that turns a gear, which then moves a bicycle chain, which then rotates a smaller gear, which turns a vertical shaft that either turns a set of bevel gears, which turns another, horizontal shaft that ultimately turns a propeller, or in the case of earlier prototypes, an ornithopter mechanism.
Often, a hybrid system is used; where during a certain amount of time pedaling, it would charge a battery,[1] which would, at the push of a button, power an electric motor that is connected to the same horizontal shaft as the propeller.
Human-powered aircraft have been successfully flown over considerable distances. However, they are still primarily constructed as engineering challenges rather than for any kind of recreational or utilitarian purpose.
History
Early attempts at human-powered flight were unsuccessful because of the difficulty of achieving the high power-to-weight ratio. Prototypes often used ornithopter principles which were not only too heavy to meet this requirement but aerodynamically unsatisfactory.
First attempts
In 1904, Scientific American published an article and a photograph of a bicycle plane built by Steward Winslow of Riparia, Washington.[2] He attempted to fly his plane on 30 July 1904, but one of the wheels failed.[3]
An early human-powered aircraft was the Gerhardt Cycleplane, developed by W. Frederick Gerhardt at McCook Field in Dayton, Ohio in 1923. The aircraft had seven wings stacked nearly 15 feet (4.6 m) high. The pilot pedaled a bicycle gear that turned the propeller. In early tests the craft 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.[4] Its only human-powered takeoff was a short hop of 20 feet (6.1 m) with the craft rising 2 feet (0.6 m).[5]
In 1934,
A craft called
In March 1937, a team of
First flights
The first officially authenticated take-off and landing of a man-powered aircraft (one capable of powered take-offs, unlike a
The best flight out of 40 attempts was 650 metres.The
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. 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 Woodford Essex Aircraft Group's Jupiter, designed and built by Chris Roper, piloted by John Potter flew 1,070 metres and 1,239 metres in June 1972. Due to Roper's ill health, the project was later continued at RAF Halton - Potter was a serving Royal Air Force (RAF) officer at the time.[19]
Royal Aeronautical Society Human Powered Flight Group
The Royal Aeronautical Society's "Man Powered Aircraft Group" was formed in 1959 by the members of the Man Powered Group of the College of Aeronautics at Cranfield 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.[citation needed])
Under the auspices of the Society, in 1959 the industrialist
Kremer Prize successes
In 1973, Kremer increased his prize money tenfold to £50,000. At that time, the human-powered aircraft had flown only in straight (or nearly straight) line courses, and no-one had yet even attempted his more challenging figure-eight course, which required a fully controllable aircraft. He also opened the competition to all nationalities; previously it was restricted to British entries only.
On 23 August 1977, the
The second Kremer prize of £100,000 was won on June 12, 1979, again by Paul MacCready, when
Kremer speed prize and later flights by MIT team
A week after the cross-Channel flight of Gossamer Albatross, which used a propeller designed by the MIT team,[22] a student-led team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology achieved first flight on their Chrysalis aircraft,[23] which demonstrated full controllability and was flown by 44 different pilots,[22] including female pilots.
On 11 May 1984, the third Kremer prize of £20,000 for speed went to the MIT design team for flying their Monarch-B[24] 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.
Over the next four years, the MIT group continued to develop their designs, with the Monarch and Monarch-B aircraft succeeded by three follow-on designs, the Light Eagle and two
Passenger aircraft
The first human-powered passenger flight occurred on 1 October 1984 when Holger Rochelt carried his sister Katrin in Musculair 1.
Recent activities
Machines have been built and flown in Japan, Germany, Greece, France, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Austria, Canada, Singapore, the United States, and the United Kingdom, with their total number approaching a hundred.
With further funds from the late Henry Kremer, the Royal Aeronautical Society announced four new prizes:[26]
- £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.
Attempts have been made to claim the £100,000 Kremer Sport prize. Students from
In 2012, the Royal Aeronautical Society brought the Icarus Cup[28] for human powered flying into being. The first cup was won by Airglow, designed by John and Mark McIntyre. The Icarus Cup is different from the Kremer Prize in that it does not aim to simply break speed and distance records, but make human powered flying into a popular sport. Therefore, the competition includes challenges such as a slalom course, an unaided starting task and a landing accuracy test. The Icarus Cup is held annually at Lasham Airfield, Great Britain, the site of the first human-powered flight.
In 2017, Yuta Watanabe, the pilot of Birdman House Iga, completed a 40 km round-trip flight. In 2019 he succeeded with a 60 km flight during the Japan International Birdman event above Lake Biwa. [29]
Types
Airships
Inventors have built human-powered
Helicopters/rotorcraft
Ornithopters
On August 2, 2010, Todd Reichert of the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies piloted a human-powered
See also
- Human-powered transport
- Solar-powered aircraft
- Zero-emissions vehicle
- Human-powered helicopter
- Controllable slope soaring
- Ornithopter
- List of human-powered aircraft
References
- ^ Richardson, Mike (2022-11-18). "Flycycle takes to the air - Aerospace Manufacturing". aero-mag.com. Retrieved 2024-02-09.
- ^ "A Novel Gliding Machine". Scientific American: 183. September 10, 1904.
- ^ Camas Prairie Chronicle (Cottonwood, Idaho), August 5, 1904
- ^ Cornelisse (2002) [page needed]
- ISSN 0161-7370.
- ^ Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Washington: Zaschka Human-Power Aircraft (1934)
- ^ Lange, Bruno (1970). Das Buch der deutschen Luftfahrttechnik. Verlag Dieter Hoffmann, p. 361.
- ^ "Airplane Flown by Man Power is Pedaled Like a Bicycle" Popular Mechanics, December 1935 bottom pg. 855
- ^ "Chris Roper B. Muscle Assisted Flights Before 1939. Human Powered Flying. Accessed 2008-08-14". Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2008-08-14.
- ISBN 0-561-00283-5.
- ^ Pedaliante Archived 14 June 2006 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Man-Powered Flight - Achievements to Date With a New Suggestion" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2007-04-15.
- ^ "Transport: Icarus to Bossi". Time. 8 February 1937. Archived from the original on October 1, 2007.
- ^ Sale, Jonathan (9 November 2011). "The Guardian Celebrating 50 years of human-powered flight". London. Retrieved 9 November 2011.
- British Pathé
- ^ "Human Powered Flying by Chris Roper - Accessed 2008-08-14". Archived from the original on 2012-02-10. Retrieved 2008-08-14.
- ^ Taylor 1962, p. 151.
- ^ The Guardian, 5 May 1962, front page
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-09-23. Retrieved 2015-08-17.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ISSN 0015-4806.
- ^ Flight International 1977 p1254
- ^ a b The Gossamers and Other Planes Archived 2011-10-03 at the Wayback Machine, Royal Aeronautical Society Human Powered Aircraft Group (accessed Nov. 13 2012)
- ^ Chrysalis Human-Powered Airplane: It Flew the First Time Out Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine, Royal Aeronautical Society Human Powered Aircraft Group (accessed Nov. 13 2012)
- ^ Geoffrey A. Landis, Human Powered Aircraft - Monarch Crew Archived 2012-02-02 at the Wayback Machine (accessed Nov. 13 2012)
- ISBN 0-670-82444-5
- ^ Royal Aeronautical Society Site
- ^ SUHPA Official Website
- ^ http://aerosociety.com/About-Us/specgroups/Human-Powered/Icarus-Cup (not to be confused with the Coupe Icare)
- ^ "鳥人間コンテスト史上初!"60km"完全制覇!!【2019年「BIRDMAN HOUSE 伊賀」】". YouTube.
- ^ Man-powered airship
- ^ Another human-powered airship
- ^ DIY human-powered balloon
- ^ "Stéphane Rousson and his pedal-powered dirigible | the Lighter-Than-Air Society".
- ^ Human-Powered Ornithoper Flight in Flapping Wings: The Ornithopter Zone Newsletter, Fall 2010.
- ^ Human-Powered Ornithopter Project
- ^ UTIAS Snowbird 1
- ^ UTIAS Snowbird 2
Bibliography
- Cornelisse, Diana G. Splendid Vision, Unswerving Purpose: Developing Air Power for the United States Air Force During the First Century of Powered Flight. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio: U.S. Air Force Publications, 2002. ISBN 0-16-067599-5.
- "Man powered flight advances" Flight International, 16 March 1985
- Dr K Sherwin "Man-powered flying as a sport" Flight International, 23 December 1971
- Hirst, Mike. "America's man powered winner" Flight International, 29 October 1977, Vol. 112, No. 3581. pp. 1253–1256.
- Taylor, John W. R. Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1962–63. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, Ltd, 1962.