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Aviation History
1983
1983 - 1148.PDF
PRIVATE FLIGHT The German HVS MPA is the only existing machine that might be developed into a serious contender for the new Kremer prize Manpower turns to speed LONDON Industrialist Henry Kremer has donated a further £100,000 in prizes to the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS) for a new man- powered aircraft challenge- to fly almost a mile in three minutes around a triangular course. The task will be known as the Kremer World Speed Competition. The money is divided into £20,000 for the first successful attempt, and £5,000 for subsequent raising of the speed record. Energy-retaining devices are permitted, and a ten- minute period for storage will be allowed before crossing the start line. The RAeS manpowered-aircraft group think that this amount of time will be sufficient for the crew to store about half the energy needed to complete the flight. This assumes 50 per cent efficiency for the storage device. Only the energy of the flying crew may be stored, but two ground handlers are permitted during the storage period. The competition aims to encourage the development of manpowered aircraft (MPAs) that are more practical than previous machines. Wing span will be limited by the small turning radii needed to fly round the triangle in the shortest possible distance. The higher speed should enable aircraft to fly in condi tions worse than those required by earlier, less robust machines. The RAeS feels that there are no current aircraft that can make a seri ous attempt on the prize. The course is 1,500m (120yds short of a mile), but the distance flown will be at least a mile because all parts of the aircraft must remain outside the turning points. 1894 For each metre increase in span, the course is effectively extended by 8m. The shape of the course around three points may be chosen to suit the land (or water) space available. It must be flown in both directions, although only one direction is timed. Since Paul MacCready's Gossamer Albatross crossed the English Channel in 1979, MPA projects have needed a new stimulus. Extending the original competition to, say, fly the Channel and return non-stop, was not seen as a practical solution. That would probably have required aircraft to be even larger, more delicate, and more expensive. Although MacCready won £100,000 when Gossamer Albatross crossed the Chan nel, he spent nearly that much in staging the attempt. Other aircraft have been built on much smaller budgets, and have then suffered because permanent hangarage could not be found, or because the enthusiasm of the unpaid team was not maintained. Suitable calm weather for flying extremely large and often fragile MPAs is rare. The RAeS MPA group committee thinks that an aircraft designed to meet the new challenge will be about the size of a conventional glider, eliminating transport and storage problems. Toler ance of wind will be much better. Until recently commercial sponsorship has been frowned upon, but now the committee recognises the "essential financial lubrication" needed to accelerate development. The competition rules and regulations "seek to encour age but to regulate the participation of sponsoring organisations .. .". Rear Admiral H. C. N. Goodhart, who designed the Newbury Manflier MPA, has examined some of the devel opments that may result from the new competition. The rules say that the start line must be crossed at a height of 2m, not more than lOmin after the start of power storage. So if 45sec were allowed for take-off, the power storage period would be 9*min. The flight will last 3lmin. Goodhart says that if the pilot produces the same power during the storage period and the flight (typi cally 0-33 h.p.) and the storage device is 50 per cent efficient, then 0-75 h.p. is available for flight. He describes this as "a wealth of power" compared with that available for pure MPAs. The distance flown by a 16m-span aircraft round the nominal 1,500m course will be a minimum of 1,654m. To complete this distance in 3min requires a speed of 9 • 2m/sec. The real challenge, says Goodhart, is not to build a successful MPA using 0 • 75 h.p., but to produce one which can do 2l! m.p.h. on this power. Goodhart says that the aircraft should weigh about The is how Flight artist Ira Epton envisages a possible contender for the new prize FLIGHT International, 25 June 1983
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