MIT Chrysalis

MIT Chrysalis
Role	Human-powered aircraft
National origin	United States
Manufacturer	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Designer	Bob Parks, Harold Youngren
First flight	June 5, 1979
Retired	September, 1979
Number built	1

The Chrysalis was a human-powered biplane, designed and built by graduates and undergraduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with Professor Eugene Larabee acting as Project Adviser. ^[1] MIT had previously built two HPAs, the BURD and BURD II, both of which were unsuccessful. ^[2]

Design work began in late 1978, with a 1/8th scale flying model being built to verify aspects of the design. ^[3] The Chrysalis was a biplane of conventional configuration, fitted with a tractor propeller. The biplane's wire-braced wings were unstaggered, and the outboard panels of the lower wing were set with a 6° dihedral. The fuselage was of the pod-and-boom type. The aircraft had a primary structure of aluminum tubing, and a secondary structure made of styrofoam, balsa, and carbon fibre. ^[1] The entire aircraft was covered in transparent Mylar film. The undercarriage had a single, castoring, monowheel. ^[1] Lateral control was achieved by wing warping, with directional and pitch control being achieved by the all-flying tailfin and tailplane. ^[1]

Construction of the aircraft took 91 days, and involved 20 people and 3,500 hours of work. ^[2] It first flew on June 5, 1979, at Hanscom Field airport in Bedford, Massachusetts with designer Harold Youngren piloting the craft. ^[3] Between then and its dismantling in September, the Chrysalis made a total of 345 flights, with 44 different pilots. ^[1]

The Chrysalis was notable for being the first aircraft to use a 'minimum induced loss' propeller, the design of which was based on the work of Professor Eugene Larrabee. ^[4] The MIT team also built the propeller used by the MacCready Gossamer Albatross. ^[2]

Specifications

Data from Jane's all the world's aircraft 1981-2, ^[1] and Popular Mechanics ^[3]

General characteristics

• Crew: 1
• Length: 39 ft (12 m)
• Wingspan: 72 ft (22 m)
• Wing area: 748 sq ft (69.5 m²)
• Airfoil: Lissaman 7769
• Empty weight: 93 lb (42 kg)
• Gross weight: 213–293 lb (97–133 kg) depending on pilot weight
• Propellers: 2-bladed, 14 ft (4.3 m) diameter

Performance

• Wing loading: 0.28–0.39 lb/sq ft (1.4–1.9 kg/m²) depending on pilot weight

See also

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era

• Kohm Lady Godiva
• MacCready Gossamer Albatross
• MacCready Gossamer Condor
• MIT BURD
• MIT BURD II
• MIT Monarch A
• MIT Daedalus

Related lists

• List of human-powered aircraft

References

1. Taylor, John W. R., ed. (1981). Jane's all the world's aircraft 1981-82. London: Jane's Yearbooks. pp. 413–414. ISBN   0710607296 . Retrieved April 1, 2023.
2. M.L. (August–September 1979). "Chrysalis, Human-Powered Airplane: It Flew the First Time Out!". MIT Technology Review. Vol. 81, no. 8. Cambridge, MA, USA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. pp. A2–A7. ISSN   0040-1692 . Retrieved April 1, 2023.
3. Sahagian, Tom (February 1980). "What it's like to fly the M.I.T. pedal-powered biplane". Popular Mechanics. New York, NY: The Hearst Corporation. pp. 120–121, 172–173. Retrieved April 1, 2023.
4. Larrabee, E.Eugene (July 1980). "The Screw Propeller". Scientific American. Vol. 243, no. 1. New York, NY: Gerard Piel. pp. 134, 135, 137–144, 147, 148. ISSN   0036-8733.

Further reading

• Langford, John (Spring 1981). "Not All Student Design Projects End on Paper: Chronology of the Chrysalis". AIAA Student Journal. Vol. 19, no. 1. New York, NY: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. pp. 4–13. Retrieved April 9, 2023.