|
Halton Jupiter
The Halton ''Jupiter'' was a human-powered aircraft which established distance and duration records in the early 1970s. Background The aircraft was originally designed in 1963 by Chris Roper of Woodford, Essex. Construction by Roper, and others, continued through to 1968, when ill-health halted work. In 1969, a workshop fire partially destroyed the craft. In 1970, the remains were handed over to Flight Lieutenant John Potter, based at RAF Halton, Buckinghamshire. Development and description The aircraft was rebuilt at Halton, by an informal group of RAF staff and apprentices, led by Potter. Some 100 individuals were involved with the construction, contributing 4,000 hours towards it. The aircraft was substantially similar to that originally constructed by Roper et al, but with a number of detail changes. The ''Jupiter'' was a single-place shoulder-wing monoplane, with a pylon-mounted pusher propeller. The wing's primary structure was a spruce and balsa spar, with the secon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Human-powered Aircraft
A human-powered aircraft (HPA) is an aircraft belonging to the class of vehicles known as human-powered transport. Human-powered aircraft have been successfully flown over considerable distances. However, they are still primarily constructed as engineering challenges rather than for any kind of recreational or utilitarian purpose. History Early attempts at human-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. First attempts In 1904, Scientific American published an article and a photograph of a bicycle plane built by Steward Winslow of Riparia, Washington. He attempted to fly his plane on 30 July 1904, but one of the wheels failed. An early human-powered aircraft was the Gerhardt Cycleplane, developed by W. Frederick Gerhardt at McCook Field in Dayton, Ohio in 1923. The aircraft h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
