The Goodhart ''Newbury Manflier'' was a two-place
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 a ...
designed by
Nicholas Goodhart
Rear Admiral Hilary Charles Nicholas Goodhart CB FRAeS (28 September 1919 – 9 April 2011) was an engineer and aviator who invented the mirror-sight deck landing system for aircraft carriers. He was also a world champion and record breaker in ...
. Its most notable feature was that the two pilots were placed in separate fuselages, spaced 70 ft apart.
Design and development
The genesis of the aircraft was detailed in a paper presented at a 1974 conference hosted by the Man-Powered Aircraft Group of the
Royal Aeronautical Society, and later published in its Journal.
[ In the paper, after initially describing the requirements for an aircraft to win the ]Kremer Prize
The Kremer prizes are a series of monetary awards, established in 1959 by the industrialist Henry Kremer.
Royal Aeronautical Society Human Powered Flight Group
The Royal Aeronautical Society's "Man Powered Aircraft Group" was formed in 1959 b ...
then on offer, Goodhart proposed a two-person monoplane, with a 100 ft wingspan, with each pilot being located in separate nacelles at the wingtips. This configuration would reduce the bending moments on the wing spar, and hence the overall weight. Turning radius would be in the order of 1,000 ft, and with each pilot generating 0.20 hp (or 140 watts) to maintain flight.[
The design evolved, so that when construction of the Newbury Manflier commenced in November 1976, the span had increased, and the location of the nacelles moved to approximately half-way between the centre of the craft and the wingtips.][ Each pilot sat in their own fuselage, sitting atop of an aluminium-framed bicycle and pedalling a two bladed pusher propeller, located at rear of a fairing. Pitch control was achieved by all-flying elevators located at the end of tail booms. Lateral control would be accomplished by warping the outboard wings. There were no rudders, with the oversized propeller fairings acting as tailfins. Directional control was to be achieved by one pilot pedalling faster than the other. Construction was of aluminium tubing, spruce, styrofoam, balsa, with the covering being transparent plastic. The craft was designed to be disassembled into six pieces for easy storage and transportation.][
The Newbury Manflier first flew in November 1979, at RAF Greenham Common. The project was halted soon after due to hangar space at the base no longer being available, and the success of the American ''Gossamer'' aircraft limiting what was left to achieve. A number of the aircraft components are held by the Science Museum at the ]National Collections Centre
The National Collections Centre, near Swindon, England, is the collections management facility for the Science Museum Group and the Science Museum Library & Archives.
Overview
The Science Museum originally took ownership of the 545-acre forme ...
at Wroughton.[
]
Documentary
A 30 minute documentary on the ''Newbury Manflier'' was produced by BBC South. Called ''Project Manflier'', the documentary was filmed between November 1978 and April 1981, and included coverage of the aircraft's initial taxiing trials, three of the flight trials, and its disassembly.[ The reporter and narrator was Mike Debens, and the producer was John Frost. The programme was first broadcast on ]BBC Two
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
on 15 August 1981.[
]
Specifications
See also
References
{{reflist, refs=
[{{Cite book , last=Ellis , first=Ken , title=Wrecks & relics, publisher=Midland Publishing , year=2006 , isbn=1857802357 , location=Hinckley, England , page=264 , language=en, edition=20th, url=https://archive.org/details/wrecksrelics0000elli/page/264/mode/1up , access-date=April 30, 2023]
[{{cite journal , first=H.C.N. , last=Goodhart, date=September 1974 , title=A man-powered aircraft with power to spare , journal=The Aeronautical Journal , publisher=The Royal Aeronautical Society , location=London , volume=78 , issue=765, pages=411–413]
[{{cite journal , first= , last=, date=31 March 1978 , title=What's Flying? , journal=European Scientific Notes , publisher=Office of Naval Research , location=London , volume=32 , issue=3, pages=114–115, url=https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA063182/page/n37/mode/2up, access-date=7 February 2023]
[{{cite AV media , date =1981 , title =Project Manflier , people=Debens, Mike (reporter), trans-title = , type = Television production , language =en , time =24:00 , publisher =BBC TV South]
[{{cite conference , first1=J.H. , last1=McMasters , first2=J.D. , last2=McLean , title=The Formation Flight of Human Powered Aircraft across the English Channel in the Spring , format=PDF , conference=XVI OSTIV Congress , date=1978 , location=Châteauroux, France , url=https://journals.sfu.ca/ts/index.php/op/article/download/1854/1775 , access-date=4 February 2023]
[{{cite web , title=Project Manflier , url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/4688667941293bf97752a5b7e087e074 , website=BBC Programme Index , publisher=BBC , access-date=18 March 2023]
External links
Video of the ''Newbury Manflier''Construction photographs of the ''Newbury Manflier''Flickr album of ''Newbury Manflier'' photographs
Aircraft first flown in 1979
Human-powered aircraft
1970s British experimental aircraft
Twin-fuselage aircraft
Twin-engined pusher aircraft
Shoulder-wing aircraft