Kremer prize

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The Kremer prizes are a series of monetary awards, established in 1959 by the industrialist Henry Kremer.

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Royal Aeronautical Society Human Powered Flight Group

The Royal Aeronautical Society's "Man Powered Aircraft Group" was formed in 1959 by the members of the Man Powered Group of the College of Aeronautics at Cranfield when they were invited to join the Society. Its title was changed from "Man" to "Human" in 1988 because of the many successful flights made by female pilots.[ citation needed ]

Under the auspices of the Society, in 1959 the industrialist Henry Kremer offered the first Kremer prizes, of £5,000 for the first human-powered aircraft to fly a figure-of-eight course round two markers half-a-mile apart. It was conditional that the designer, entrant pilot, place of construction and flight must all be British. [1] In 1973 Kremer increased the prize to £50,000 and opened it to all nationalities, to stimulate interest. [2]

The first Kremer prize of £50,000 was won on 23 August 1977 by Dr. Paul MacCready when his Gossamer Condor, piloted by Bryan Allen, was the first human-powered aircraft to fly a figure eight around two markers one half mile apart, starting and ending the course at least 10 feet (3.0 m) above the ground. [3]

The second Kremer prize, of £100,000, was won on 12 June 1979, again by Paul MacCready, when Bryan Allen flew MacCready's Gossamer Albatross from England to France.

A Kremer prize of £20,000 for speed was won in 1984 by a design team of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for flying their MIT Monarch B craft on a triangular 1.5 km (0.93 mi) course in under three minutes (for an average speed of 32 km/h (20 mph)). Further segments of a total prize pot of £100,000 were to be awarded for every improvement in speed of at least 5%; the next segment was won in the MacCready Bionic Bat with a flight of 163.28 seconds on 18 July 1984, piloted by Parker MacCready. [4] The third segment was won by Holger Rochelt flying Musculair 1 designed by Günther Rochelt. The fourth segment was won on 2 December 1984, with a flight of 143.08 seconds in the MacCready Bionic Bat piloted by Bryan Allen. [4] The fifth and final segment was won with a flight of 122.01 seconds by Holger Rochelt flying Musculair 2, after which the prize competition was withdrawn by the Royal Aeronautical Society on grounds of safety.

There are currently three Kremer Prizes that have not yet been awarded, for a total of £150,000:

See also

Related Research Articles

MacCready <i>Gossamer Albatross</i> Human-powered aircraft developed by American aeronautics company AeroVironment

The Gossamer Albatross is a human-powered aircraft built by American aeronautical engineer Dr Paul B MacCready's company AeroVironment. On June 12, 1979, it completed a successful crossing of the English Channel to win the second Kremer prize worth £100,000.

MacCready <i>Gossamer Condor</i> American human-powered aircraft

The MacCready Gossamer Condor was the first human-powered aircraft capable of controlled and sustained flight; as such, it won the Kremer prize in 1977. Its design was led by Paul MacCready of AeroVironment, Inc.

Bryan Lewis Allen is an American self-taught hang glider pilot and bicyclist. He achieved fame when he piloted the two aircraft that won the first two Kremer prizes for human-powered flight: the Gossamer Condor and Gossamer Albatross. He later set world distance and duration records in a small pedal-powered blimp named "White Dwarf."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul MacCready</span> American aeronautical engineer (1925–2007)

Paul B. MacCready Jr. was an American aeronautical engineer. He was the founder of AeroVironment and the designer of the human-powered aircraft that won the first Kremer prize. He devoted his life to developing more efficient transportation vehicles that could "do more with less".

The Monarch B was a human-powered aircraft, designed and built by graduates and undergraduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and won the £20,000 first prize for the Kremer World Speed Competition. It is a successor to the Monarch A HPA which preceded it.

MacCready <i>Gossamer Penguin</i> Type of aircraft

The Gossamer Penguin was a solar-powered experimental aircraft created by Paul MacCready's AeroVironment. MacCready, whose Gossamer Condor in 1977 won the Kremer prize for human-powered flight, told reporters two weeks in June, 1980 that "The first solar-powered flight ever made took place on May 18." The testing ground was at Minter Field outside of Shafter, California.

The Flight of the Gossamer Condor is a 1978 American short documentary film directed by Ben Shedd, about the development of the Gossamer Condor, the first human-powered aircraft, by a team led by Paul MacCready. The Academy Film Archive preserved The Flight of the Gossamer Condor in 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human-powered aircraft</span>

A human-powered aircraft (HPA) is an aircraft belonging to the class of vehicles known as human-powered transport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SUMPAC</span> British human-powered aircraft

The Southampton University Man Powered Aircraft on 9 November 1961 became the first human-powered aeroplane to make an officially authenticated take-off and flight. It was designed and built by Southampton university students between 1960 and 1961 for an attempt at the Kremer prize, but it was never able to complete the 'figure-of-eight' course specified to claim the prize money.

Eric Raymond is an American Certified Flight Instructor, Glider (sailplane) pilot, hang gliding pilot and designer of solar-powered airplanes.

The HPA Toucan is a British two-seat human-powered aircraft built and flown by members of the Hertfordshire Pedal Aeronauts and was the first two-person human-powered aircraft to fly.

The University of Maryland Gamera II is an improved human-powered helicopter designed to win the US$250,000 Sikorsky Prize.

Airglow is a pedal-driven human-powered aircraft. It was designed and developed by brothers John and Mark McIntyre of Cambridgeshire, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Musculair</span> 1980s German human-powered aircraft

Musculair 1 and Musculair 2 are two human-powered aircraft designed and built by German academic and engineer Günther Rochelt.

The Goodhart Newbury Manflier was a two-place human-powered aircraft designed by Nicholas Goodhart. Its most notable feature was that the two pilots were placed in separate fuselages, spaced 70 ft apart.

The HVS was a human-powered aircraft, designed and built by three German aeronautical professionals. Its name comes from the surnames of those involved; Wolfang Hütter, Franz Villinger, and Wilhelm Schüle. Villinger co-designed the 1930s HV-1 Mufli human-powered aircraft.

The BURD II was a two-place human-powered biplane, designed and built by graduates and undergraduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is very similar to the original BURD, which suffered a structural collapse during testing in 1975, but incorporated changes to its structure and its control systems.

The Monarch A was a human-powered aircraft, designed and built by graduates and undergraduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with Professors Walter Hollister and Ed Crawley acting as Project Advisers. Professor Eugene Larrabee, who had been the adviser for the 1979 MIT Chrysalis HPA, also provided support.

The Dragonfly was a human-powered aircraft, designed and built by the Prestwick Man Powered Aircraft Group, based at the Prestwick International Airport in South Ayrshire, Scotland.

The Smolkowski-Laviolette biplane was a Canadian human-powered biplane designed and built by two Calgary aeronautical engineers, Alvin Smolkowski and Maurice Laviolette, in the 1960s.

References

  1. ↑ "Flying Magazine". Flying: 36–. June 1963. ISSN   0015-4806.
  2. ↑ "Human Powered Flight Group Webpage". Royal Aeronautical Society. 2011. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  3. ↑ Graham Warwick Washington (4 March 2013). "Power Prize". Aviation Week and Space Technology.
  4. 1 2 Bionic Bat - Stored energy human powered aircraft
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