John Wimpenny (3 December 1922 – 27 April 2015) was an English aeronautical engineer who held the record for the longest human powered flight.

Career

Wimpenny was born in London, growing up in Palmers Green and Winchmore Hill. He attended

Minchenden Grammar School Minchenden School was a mixed secondary school situated in Southgate, North London, established in 1919 with 90 pupils. It merged with Arnos School in 1984. History The school was established in 1919 in Tottenhall Road as a mixed secondary sch ...

in Southgate and in 1958 he moved to

St. Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roman r ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, where he lived for the rest of his life. John Wimpenny's career as an aeronautical engineer began 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 ...

in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, in October 1940, and he went on to work on the Mosquito, Tiger Moth, Hornet, Vampire and Comet aircraft projects, becoming Deputy Chief Aerodynamicist in 1957. He later worked for

Hawker Siddeley Aviation Hawker Siddeley was a group of British manufacturing companies engaged in aircraft production. Hawker Siddeley combined the legacies of several British aircraft manufacturers, emerging through a series of mergers and acquisitions as one of onl ...

in the capacity of Chief Research Engineer from 1965. He worked on the development of the Hawker Siddeley HS 125 executive jet and on civil STOL and V/STOL design in co-operation with the Dornier Aircraft Company in Germany. He was promoted to the position of Director of Research at Hawker Siddeley in Hatfield and later became Executive Director of Research at

British Aerospace British Aerospace plc (BAe) was a British aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer. Its head office was at Warwick House in the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Farnborough, Hampshire. Formed in 1977, in 1999 it purchased Marconi ...

in Kingston upon Thames.

Human-powered aircraft

The Hatfield ''Puffin'', a

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 ...

intended for an attempt at 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 ...

, was designed by a team headed by John Wimpenny, by then an aerodynamicist, and built by volunteers at the

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 ...

, UK.

Record-breaking flight in the Puffin

On 2 May 1962, Wimpenny, aged 39, piloted the ''Puffin'', pedalling like a cyclist to make the propeller drive the aircraft, and he achieved a flight distance of 993 yards, then a world record which was to stand for ten years.The Daily Sketch, 5 May 1962, p.1

Later life

John Wimpenny was visiting professor for undergraduate research projects at

City University London City, University of London, is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, and a member institution of the federal University of London. It was founded in 1894 as the Northampton Institute, and became a university when The City Univ ...

from 1990-1999 and he was Vice-Chairman of the

Royal Aeronautical Society The Royal Aeronautical Society, also known as the RAeS, is a British multi-disciplinary professional institution dedicated to the global aerospace community. Founded in 1866, it is the oldest aeronautical society in the world. Members, Fellows ...

's Human Powered Aircraft Group from 1995 until his death.

Honours and awards

1976 Hodgson Prize for his paper on 'Costs and Decision-Making' 1978 Royal Aeronautical Society Silver Medal for his many important contributions in practical aeronautics 1983 Hodgson Prize for his paper 'Aircraft R and D in Europe - A Perspective View'

External links

* Flight by Manpower (1962): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_-ehRfsVcI * Review of 1962: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPh_Bw860-c * Interview with John Wimpenny: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fHkW0XKhjY * Press photograph of John Wimpenny in the Puffin (1962): http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/john-wimpenny-won-50-for-breaking-the-human-powered-flight-news-photo/3290536

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wimpenny, John 1922 births 2015 deaths 1960s British experimental aircraft Human-powered aircraft