Gateway Hampshire Celebrates 50 Years Of Human-Powered Flight

The first human-powered flight was made on 9 November 1961 in conjunction with Southampton University. End Quote

(1888PressRelease) February 25, 2012 - This week the bicycle-driven Airglow will commemorate the aviation landmark fifty years ago Derek Piggott became the first man since Icarus to take off and fly by his own unaided efforts. Gateway Hampshire marvels at how far technology has come in the past 50 year in aircraft.

Late in the afternoon of 9 November 1961, he climbed into the Southampton University Man Powered Aircraft (Sumpac), a fragile creation resembling a large model plane with a bicycle underneath. Pedaling furiously to drive both wheels and propeller, he felt Sumpac lifting off for a flight of 64 metres at a precarious 1.8 metres above the runway at Lasham airfield.Though short and, at about 20mph, very slow, this was a historic flight: previous pedaling pilots had flown but needed help to get airborne. The managing director of Gateway Hampshire comments saying, 'Derek Piggott must have endured hours of training to prepare for this momentous experiment - and I am sure he was pleased it paid off and will be remembered even 100 years from now.'

The Royal Aeronautical Society will also hold a rally of human-powered aircraft in July 2012, just before the London Olympics, which enthusiasts hope will generate enough interest to eventually pedal the sport into future games.
Piggott, now 88, kept flying. "I've flown about 170 different types of glider and over 130 different types of powered planes," he recalls. He has been an instructor in aircraft from primary gliders used for training to Meteors, the first British jet fighter. He has held height records in gliders and flown the aircraft in the 1965 film comedy Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines.He still flies both powered aircraft and gliders but, after a few more attempts during the following weeks in 1961 in which he achieved a flight of more than half a mile, has never taken to the saddle to race down the runway under his own steam.

His 9 November record stood for only a week, until it was overtaken by the professionals at manufacturers de Havilland whose "Puffin" puffed over a greater distance. The 24-metre-wingspan Sumpac was the creation of three students: David Williams, Anne Marsden (now his wife) and Alan Lassiere. "We were postgraduates in aeronautical engineering but spent our time on Sumpac," says Williams. "The professor helped: he turned a blind eye."

Gateway Hampshire is a new sales and marketing company, 'the reason we moved to Southampton is because there is a massive demand for our services in the area. The work we do for our clients is crucial for their growth.'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/nov/09/50-years-human-powered-flight

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