Gossamer Condor
The Gossamer Condor was a human-powered aircraft built by Dr Paul B. MacCready's AeroVironment. The aircraft, piloted by amateur cyclist and hang-glider pilot Bryan Allen, won the first Kremer prize on August 23, 1977 by completing a figure '8' course specified by the Royal Aeronautical Society, at Minter Field in Shafter, California. It was the first human powered aircraft capable of more than short uncontrolled hops.
History
The Kremer Prize had been set up in 1959 by Henry Kremer, a British industrialist, and offered 50,000 pounds in prize money to the first group that could fly a human-powered aircraft over a figure-eight course covering a total of a mile (1.6 kilometers). Early attempts to build human-powered aircraft had focused on wooden designs, which proved too heavy. In the early 1970s, Dr. Paul B. MacCready and Dr. Peter B. S. Lissaman, both of Aerovironment Inc., took a fresh look at the challenge, and came up with an unorthodox aircraft, the Gossamer Condor.
The Gossamer Condor was basically a flying wing, modified with the addition of a gondola for the pilot underneath and a canard control surface extended in front, and was mostly built of lightweight plastics.[1] The aircraft has been preserved at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
The success led to the Gossamer Albatross, which crossed the English Channel, as well as the Solar Challenger, a solar electric-powered version that also made an English Channel crossing, and later to NASA's Pathfinder/Helios series of unmanned solar-powered aircraft.[1]
Specifications
- Wingspan: 29.25m (96 ft.)
- Length: 9.14 m (30 ft.)
- Height: 5.49 m (18 ft.)
- Weight: 31.75 kg (70 lb.)
References
External links
- Condor at the Smithsonian
- Site with an expanding photo archive of Gossamer-series aircraft, by the Gossamer Albatross team photographer
- THE FLIGHT OF THE GOSSAMER CONDOR DVD. Re-mastered & digitally restored in 2007 from a new Academy Film Archive preservation print. Won the Academy Award in 1978 for best Documentary Short Subject.
- Paul MacCready talking at TED
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
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