33rd Anniversary of the First Human Powered Flight - Paul MacCready’s Gossamer Condor

August 23, 2010

Aug. 23, 1977: Pedal-Powered Gossamer Condor Flies Into Record Books

1977: Bryan Allen completes a figure-eight course piloting and powering the Gossamer Condor to claim the Kremer Prize for human-powered flight.

In 1959, British industrialist Henry Kremer created a prize for a successful human-powered aircraft. The criteria were fairly simple in concept, but would turn out to be very difficult to execute.

In order to win the prize, a person had to pilot a human-powered aircraft around a figure-eight course where the turning points are a half-mile apart. The aircraft had to clear a 10-foot hurdle at the beginning of the course and again at the end.

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