Human Powered Flight
By PhoenixV
Daedalus
The first completely human powered take off and flight of an aircraft that was recorded was The SUMPAC in 1961. It was built at Southhampton University and piloted by Derik Piggott and it flew about .04 miles or 650 meters.
Many of the human powered aircraft compete for Kremer Prizes. Kremer Prizes are cash awards for human powered flight accomplishments.
The first human powered aircraft to win a Kremer Prize was the Gossamer Condor 2 in 1977. The Condor was piloted by Bryan Allen. He was able to accomplish the feat of flying a figure eight course of a total of a mile at least 10 feet above the ground.
The next Kremer Prize was awarded to Pilot Bryan Allen flying the Gossamer Albatross across the English Channel which was about 22 miles in a time of two hours and forty-nine minutes.
In 1988 The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Daedalus flew a record breaking distance of 71.5 miles in just under 4 hours, literally island hopping in the Mediterranean.
The aircraft was piloted by an Olympic class bicyclist Kanellos Kanellopoulos who flew the Daedalus from Crete to the island of Santorini almost 72 miles away across the sea.
Gossamer Albatross
Daedalus Flight Path
Iraklion - 
Santorini - Gossamer Condor
Comments
Thanks Ocean!
Looks like great exercise amd what a motivation to not quit early. Great hub!
Thank you Susan!
I would like to draw your attention to an often overlooked achievement of human-powered flight: The 1st American to do so was Joe Zinno in 1976 at Quonset Point, RI. Joe, along with his brother Clarence, designed, funded out of their own pockets, and built in donated hangar space (or in Clarence's case, who designed and built the reciprocating-pedal drive train, in his own suburban-Orlando home's two-car garage) the N1ZB Olympian (ZB for "Zinno Brothers"). Joe Zinno took on initial piloting responsibilities and got the Olympian about a foot off the ground for about 80FT at 8:16AM on April 21, 1976. See URL Link.
Nice work
oceansnsunsets 18 months ago
What a great hub, I can't believe the accomplishments by these people using human power for flying. I can't imagine island hopping, it must have been both thrilling and a little scary. Awesome hub!