The HMPAC Puffin was a British
man-powered aircraft designed by a team headed by
John Wimpenny, an aerodynamicist at the
de Havilland Aircraft Company
The de Havilland Aircraft Company Limited () was a British aviation manufacturer established in late 1920 by Geoffrey de Havilland at Stag Lane Aerodrome Edgware on the outskirts of north London. Operations were later moved to Hatfield in H ...
. It was built by the
Hatfield Man Powered Aircraft Club
Hatfield may refer to:
Places Settlements Australia
* Hatfield, New South Wales, located in Balranald Shire
England
* Hatfield, East Riding of Yorkshire
* Hatfield, Herefordshire
* Hatfield, Hertfordshire
* Hatfield, South Yorkshire
* Hatfiel ...
(HMPAC) on the company's premises in
Hatfield, Hertfordshire
Hatfield is a town and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, in the borough of Welwyn Hatfield. It had a population of 29,616 in 2001, and 39,201 at the 2011 Census. The settlement is of Saxon origin. Hatfield House, home of the Marquess of ...
. On 2 May 1962, Wimpenny, aged 39, piloted the Puffin at the
Hatfield Aerodrome
Hatfield Aerodrome was a private airfield and aircraft factory located in the English town of Hatfield in Hertfordshire from 1930 until its closure and redevelopment in the 1990s.
Early history
Geoffrey de Havilland, pioneering aircraft desig ...
, pedalling to power the propeller, achieving a flight distance of , a world record which was to stand for ten years. The Puffin had a wingspan of .
Puffin II
An improved version of the Puffin was developed and built in 1965 as the HMPAC Puffin II. First flown on 27 August 1965, the Puffin II utilized the transmission components of the Puffin I in a completely new airframe.
After it had been damaged, the Puffin II airframe was given to
Liverpool University
, mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning
, established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...
, who used it to build the
Liverpuffin.
Specifications
See also
*
SUMPAC
The Southampton University Man Powered Aircraft (or SUMPAC) 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 betwe ...
*
List of human-powered aircraft
This is a list of 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. How ...
References
*
Further reading
*{{cite book, last1=Reay, first1=D. A., title=The History of Man-Powered Flight, date=2014, publisher=Elsevier, isbn=978-1483145990, pages=182–197, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KByoBQAAQBAJ&q=hmpac+puffin+II&pg=PA183, accessdate=12 August 2015
External links
Flight archive
1960s British experimental aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1961
Human-powered aircraft
Puffin
Puffins are any of three species of small alcids (auks) in the bird genus ''Fratercula''. These are pelagic seabirds that feed primarily by diving in the water. They breed in large colonies on coastal cliffs or offshore islands, nesting in crev ...
Single-engined pusher aircraft
Shoulder-wing aircraft