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#redirect [[Man powered flight]]
'''Man powered flight''' is aerial travel in an [[aircraft]] powered exclusively by direct human energy. (Note that 'man' in this context refers to the species and not to the gender.)
Early attempts at man 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.
==The Royal Aeronautical Society Man Powered Flight Group==
The Man Powered Aircraft Group of the Royal Aeronautical Society originated in 1959 when the members of the Man Powered Group of the College of Aeronautics at Cranfield were invited to become a group of the Society. Its title was changed from 'Man' to 'Human" in 1988 in recognition of the many successful flights by woman pilots.
Under the auspices of the Society, in 1959 the industrialist [[Henry Kremer]] offered the [[Kremer prizes|Kremer Prizes]] of £5,000 for the first man-powered aeroplane to fly a figure-of-eight course round two markers half-a-mile apart.
==First flights==
A craft called HV-1 Mufli (Muskelkraft-Flugzeug) built by Helmut Hässler & [[:de:Franz Villinger]] first flew on [[30 August]] 1935: a distance of 235 metres at [[Halle]]. 120 flights were made, the longest being 712 metres in 1937. However it was launched using a tensioned cable and so was not strictly human-powered.
Bossi & Bonomi met a challenge by the Italian Government for a flight of one kilometre using their Pedaliante in March 1937 but this is also disputed because it was catapulted nine metres into the air. <ref>[http://www.ihpva.org/HParchive/PDF/32-v10n1-1992.pdf Pedaliante] </ref>
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]] in [[Southampton University]]'s Man Powered Aircraft (SUMPA). The best flight was 650 metres.
The Puffin first flew in [[16 November]] 1961, one week after SUMPA . Eventually its best distance was 908 metres. Puffin 2 flew on [[27 August]] 1965 and made several flights over a half-mile, but not round a figure of eight, including a climb to 5.2 metres. 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 [[23 August]] 1977 the [[Gossamer Condor]] 2 flew the first figure-of-eight a distance of 2,172 metres winning the first Kremer prize. It was built by [[Paul MacCready|Dr Paul B. MacCready]]. and piloted by amateur cyclist and hang-glider pilot [[Bryan Allen (cyclist)|Bryan Allen]].
==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]] from [[England]] to [[France]]: a straight distance of 35.82 km (22 miles 453 yards) in 2 hr 49 min.
A Kremer prize of £20,000 for speed went on [[1 May]] 1984 to a design team of the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] for flying their [[MIT Monarch B]] craft on a triangular 1.5km. 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 [[Fédération Aéronautique Internationale|FAI]] was achieved on [[23 April]] 1988 from [[Iraklion]] on [[Crete]] to [[Santorini]] in a [[MIT Daedalus|MIT Daedalus 88]] piloted by Kanellos Kanellopoulos: a straight distance of 115.11 km (74 miles).
On 10th December 1989 the first [[Human powered helicopter|man-powered helicopter]], the [[California Polytechnic State University]] Da Vinci III, flew for 7.1 secs and reached a height of 20 cm.
==Current activity==
Machines have been built and flown in Japan, Germany, Greece, 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]] has announced four new prizes:<ref> [http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/j_d_mcintyre/kremer.htm Royal Aeronautical Society HPAG] </ref>
* £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 Competitionone for a sporting aeroplane able to operate in normal weather conditions, as encountered in the United Kingdom
* £1,000 for the Schools Competition one for schools
* £500 for The Robert Graham Competition for students for experimental research or engineering design
The eventual aim is to achieve [[Olympic Games|Olympic]] recognition as a sport.
==See also==
* [[Human-powered transport]]
* [[Human powered helicopter]]
==References==
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[[Category:Human-powered aircraft]]
[[Category:Human-powered vehicles]]
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