Man-Powered Airplane Designed

Leonardo DaVinci designed plans for a man-powered aircraft that never got off the ground. Now, nearly 500 years later and with the help of computer technology, a Tufts engineering student has completed a design for a self-propelled plane that he believes will successfully fly.

Jonathan Mead, designer of the plane, estimates that construction will cost around $12,000. If he can raise that money, Mead hopes to build the plane and fly it in the Kremer competition in England, which offers a $24,000 prize to the first person to build and fly a man powered heavier-than-air machine around a designated course.

The plane, as designed, measures 107 feet from wingtip to wingtip and has a small, one-man fuselage. The wing frames are built from balsa wood covered with saran wrap, while the leading edges are constructed of "foamulum," a newly invented light-weight aluminum compound resembling styrofoam in appearance. In all, without a pilot, the plane weighs 119 pounds.

Needs 0,26 Horsepower

The pilot in Mead's plane will operate a "pusher" propeller behind him by a pedaling mechanism made out of bicycle parts. Computer studies have convinced Mead that he needs 0,26 horsepower of continuous power to fly a level course at 18 miles per hour, with slightly more power needed on takeoff and turns. Experiments Mead has run with student subjects testing human energy output indicate that the pilot's pedaling will yield from one third up to one-half horsepower-enough to fly the plane.

Mead's design, which he calls the "inverse SST," is a study in the principles of low-speed aeronautics. Work in this field, according to Mead, is more challenging in a lot of ways than work on the "other" SST, since "you can make anything, even a brick, fly by giving it a lot of power."