Human Powered Flight - a Detailed History

A brief history of flight – pedal powered aviation. In no more than 1500 words.

Ever since people watched birds with envy, humans have tried continually to take to the skies. In June 1783 they achieved what they had been waiting for on the form of a hot air balloon. However, no-one would be satisfied until they had achieved “true” flight, by this they meant gliding through the air in a fully controlled fashion.

This form of controlled flight was first achieved by hang-gliders. German engineer Otto Lilienthal made over two thousand flights in the 1890’s using self designed hang gliders. These contraptions did achieve flight although they were only sustained by wind.
We still weren’t satisfied, we wanted to fly in a similar way to hang gliders but with a rate of sustainability. We wanted a plane.

One attempt at “plane” flight was in 1843 when William Henson formed the Aerial Steam Transit Company. Although the company never “took off” (neither did the designs for that matter), I think it came as a realisation to the general public. It started a race towards the first true human flight.
Finally in 1890, after two failed attempts, a flight with a height of 20cm and a length of 50m was achieved. You could hardly call it sustained or even controlled but it was a start.

To the end of the nineteenth century, the concept of gliders with propeller/s suddenly became more popular because propellers could now be driven by internal combustion engines, as opposed to steam. One of these designs killed its pilot, Plicher, in a test flight due to the fact that the prototype fell apart mid flight. Not surprisingly, these types of hang-gliders suddenly became seriously unpopular.
The Wright Brothers

The Wright brothers were ready to step in with an example of true flight on 17th December 1903. The Wright’s ‘Flyer’ made the first powered, heavier than air flight with Orville at the controls. The flight lasted 12 seconds and by the end of the day the 83kg 12 hp engine with Wilbur in the pilot seat delivered a 59 second flight over 260metres.

Five years later Wilbur piloted the ‘Type A’ in Europe. The flight was to take place on a race track in Western France. A handful of spectators watched, all knowing that the American duo had claimed to have performed powered, heavier than air flight, five years previously. The French papers had already been spreading ‘muck’ about the American’s claim.

The type a did fly, for one minute forty five seconds, surpassing any flight anywhere ever seen. Since then the Wright brothers have always been known to be the people who piloted and designed the first powered, heavier than air plane.

Over the years the plane developed. Soon the British made their breakthrough with the jet engine, but just recently there has been serious talk about ‘pedal powered aviation’.

The Icarus Cup, is a set of whacky races for human powered aircraft. The 1980’s was the heyday for human powered flight, but things may be about to change. Last year (2011), the UK Royal Aeronautical Society decided to set up a novel flying competition, as a way of putting the punch back into human powered flight. They thought it might have the capability of becoming an extreme sport. “You won’t see people travelling in these things,” says Bill Brooks, a light weight plane designer. “But we would really like top see it become a new sport.” He even went on to express some vague hopes of it becoming an Olympic Event.

Long before the invention of planes, what I would like to call Leonardo da Vinci daredevils have attempts some peculiar designs. Unlike Mr da Vinci they have been crazy enough to try their ideas in reality. To be fair, I’m talking about a time when everyone believed that anything resembling wings and/or anything that had feathers on would be sure to fly. So let’s not laugh. But , now we are trying it again.

It wasn’t just because the wings had feathers that they failed to fly. It was mainly because they had no understanding of aerodynamics. Feathers didn’t make any difference.

A large amount of interest for man powered flight in 1961, when Derek Piggot made a 64metre flight. The Kremer Prize, worth £50,000, set up by industrialist Henry Kremer and administered by the Royal Aeronautical Society, was to given to the first craft to fly a 1.6km figure of eight course. It was eventually won in 1977 by the ’Gossamer Condor’ built by Paul MacCreedy, and aeronautics Engineer from a company called Aerovironment. MacCreedy went on to win the next Kremer Prize in 1979 when the ‘Gossamer Albatross’ flew across the English Channel, piloted by Bryan Allen. The prize was worth £100,000.

The next decade saw great progress in the human powered section of flight. Several new designs emerged when light weight materials such as carbon fibre and styrofoam frames became more readily available, these changes saw the end of heavy metal and balsa wood use in the human powered plane industry.

In 1988 the ‘Deadalus 88’ was built and flew a record distance of 155km, from Heraklion, Crete to the island of Santorini, in three hours fifty four minutes. The craft was built by a team at the Massachusetts Institution of Technology, and was piloted by Greek Olympic cyclist, Kanellos Kanellopoulos. Now although the craft crashed into the sea metres short of the shore, the record stands to this day.

Sadly, the MIT’s Deadalus machine, seemed to mark the ceiling of human powered aircraft design. People seemed in agreement with Brooks that the next big challenge was to make them faster. In 2011 Brooks and a team of enthusiast decided to mark the event of the fiftieth anniversary of Piggot’s first man powered flight by dusting down the 21 year old veteran called Airglow, and restoring it to flying condition.

Airglow was built in 1990 and has spent years in storage and yet after just a few adjustments and corrections the craft flew perfectly.

With London 2012 approaching Brooks turned his mind to competitive man powered flight, a year later with Airglow being 22 years old, Brooks and the Royal Aeronautical Society, convinced the Kremer Foundation to support the Icarus Cup.

The Icarus Cup encouraged the new generation of enthusiasts and designers to ‘get stuck in’, by showing that man powered aircraft can be flown competitively.

The Icarus Cup was said to be fun to watch and Brooks assured the nation that they were not too costly to make, or too hard to fly.

Construction of these crafts was not easy. It was well known that it was hard to balance the three simple elements: the output of power, the weight of the plane with pilot and the aerodynamic performance of the wing. The factors above literally pull the aircraft in different directions, so compromise is the name of the game.

For example, a bigger wing means more lift, but also means more weight. Whilst a smaller wing means less lift so harder pedalling is required.

To give it from a different angle: the average output of a human is 250 Watts which is the equivalent of cycling on completely level ground at 20kph, with no headwind, however, the deadalus, weighs in at 31kg, much heavier than a bike. The resulting power output is equal to power divided by weight, which in this case is equal to 8.06 watts per kg, which is still better than the Gossamer Conder, at 5 watts per kg. On the other end of the scale, hummingbirds pump out a huge 75 watts per kg, which is 45 watts per kg more than a fruit fly. These massive power to weight ratios give them control and speed, and leave us by the wayside.

Although modern light weight materials can be pricey, presenter Jem Stansfield, from Bang goes the Theory, managed to build a human powered plane by copying an old design with a few changes and shortcuts, in three months, on a budget of £8,000. But, it is said that they can be built for as little as £2,000.

Jem says that they had no tests, yet it flew first time, proving that they can be flown with relative ease and sensibility.

There have been other designs for human powered flight the most remarkable is the ‘Gamera 11 Helicycle’. It spans 33metres and is driven by a length of line hauled in by pedals, this design is lighter than using a chain, but means that playtime is over when the cord runs out. It’s first flight, (June 2012), lasted ages at just 50 seconds, and topped out at a terrifying height of 1.3 metres. This attempt just missed out on the $250,000 Sikorsky Prize, which required a peak altitude of 3metres and a modest one minute hover, the improved design is scheduled to fly in late 2012 with a longer line.

The human powered craft ‘Airglow’, won the first Icarus Cup in 2012 destroying its modern opponents.