Gossamer Condor
The Gossamer Condor at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
Role	experimental aircraft
National origin	United States
Manufacturer	AeroVironment
First flight	1977
Status	museum piece
Number built	1

The Gossamer Condor was the first human-powered aircraft capable of controlled and sustained flight, able to win the Kremer prize.

Contents 1 History 2 Specifications 3 See also 4 References 5 External links 6 Further reading

[edit] History

The Kremer prize had been set up in 1959 by Henry Kremer, a British industrialist, and offered 50,000 pounds ($85,000) 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). The course also included a ten-foot pole that the aircraft had to fly over at the start and end. 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 is basically a flying wing, modified with the addition of a gondola for the pilot underneath and a canard control surface extended in front, and is mostly built of lightweight plastics.^[1]

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-eight course specified by the Royal Aeronautical Society, at Minter Field in Shafter, California. It was capable of taking off under human power, whereas earlier attempts – notably the HV-1 Mufli ^(de) and Pedaliante – both used catapult launches.^[2]

The aircraft is preserved at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

The success led Paul MacCready and AeroVironment to carry on with experimental aircraft:

the Gossamer Albatross, which crossed the English Channel,

the Solar Challenger, a solar electric-powered version that also made an English Channel crossing,

NASA's Pathfinder/Helios series of unmanned solar-powered aircraft.^[1]

[edit] Specifications

Wingspan: 29.25m (96 ft)

Length: 9.14 m (30 ft)

Height: 5.49 m (18 ft)

Weight: 31.75 kg (70 lb.)

[edit] See also

• The Flight of the Gossamer Condor, a 1979 short documentary film

[edit] References

[edit] 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

[edit] 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
• Gosnell, Mariana. Zero Three Bravo. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1993. (see chapter entitled Shafter)

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