Bryan Allen (hang glider)

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Bryan L. Allen
Alma mater Cal State Bakersfield

Bryan Lewis Allen (born October 13, 1952) is an American self-taught hang glider pilot and cyclist. He achieved fame when he piloted (and provided the human power for) the two aircraft that won the first two Kremer prizes for human-powered flight: the Gossamer Condor (1977; the first human-powered aircraft that met the specified criteria of the first Kremer prize) [1] and Gossamer Albatross (1979; the first human-powered aircraft to cross the English Channel). [2] He later set world distance and duration records in a small pedal-powered blimp named "White Dwarf." [3]

Contents

Biography

Allen graduated from Tulare Union High School in Tulare, California. He then attended the College of the Sequoias, and Cal State Bakersfield. [4]

As of 2018, he was employed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, working as a software engineer in the area of Mars exploration. [5]

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References

  1. Bryan Allen - hardest-working pilot ever
  2. "MacCready "Gossamer Albatross" | National Air and Space Museum". Archived from the original on June 15, 2015. Retrieved June 12, 2015. Description of Gossamer Albatross in Smithsonian Museum
  3. Archived May 25, 2015, at the Wayback Machine The White Dwarf Flies Again
  4. Sugar, James & Stephan Wilkinson (June 1986). "Who Is Bryan Allen?". Air and Space Magazine: 49.
  5. Allen; et al. (2005). "The care and feeding of the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Ground Data System (GDS)". NASA Technical Reports Server. Archived from the original on May 27, 2010.{{cite web}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |author= (help)