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The application of dynamic soaring to man powered flight

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2016

Keith Sherwin
Keith Sherwin*
Affiliation:
Division of Engineering Design and Production, The University of Liverpool
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Extract

With the achievement of a man powered flight across the English Channel by Bryan Allen flying the ‘Gossamer Albatross’ aircraft in 1979, attention is now centred on new performance objectives for man powered aircraft.

In the long term it is widely recognised that man powered flight must develop as a sport and this requires an improvement in the design and construction of the necessary aircraft. It is anticipated that this trend will be stimulated in the short term by speed competitions which will encourage the design and construction of compact man powered aircraft.

With such compact machines the prospect of sporting flights for duration no longer relies on the reduction of the pilot's continuous power input, but on the utilisation of help from the atmosphere, in particular, by using dynamic soaring techniques.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 85 , Issue 843 , April 1981 , pp. 150 - 153
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 1981 

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References

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