Airglow (aircraft)

Airglow is a pedal-driven human-powered aircraft. It was designed and developed by brothers John and Mark McIntyre of Cambridgeshire, England.

Airglow
Role Human powered aircraft
National origin United Kingdom
Manufacturer John and Mark McIntyre
First flight 1990
Status Still flying
Number built 1

Development

John McIntyre holds a marine engineering degree, and Mark McIntyre is a professional model-builder, both brothers were keen aero-modelers and had a history of building creative contraptions including a sail-propelled-bicycle and a hot-air-balloon which carried a camera. Work on Airglow began after John accompanied Daedalus on its epic flight. Airglow was built over a three-year period to exacting standards, any part not perfect was scrapped and re-built. Testament to this is the fact that airglow is one of the lightest HPA ever built, and has had a flying life longer than any other. Airglow took longer to build than was expected, in John's words "We thought that if Dr Who could build a trans-dimensional flux damper in less than one episode that what we wanted to do would be simple" [1]

Unlike many HPA builders Airglow wasn’t built to break records or win Kremer prizes. John states that it was built ‘for delight’ and because ‘it’s fun to make things’.

Airglow first flew at 6 am on 20 July 1990 at Duxford Airfield, England. The pilot was seventeen-year-old Nick Weston. Airglow’s first performance was impressive, the aircraft flew on only the 2nd attempt, and by the end of the day had managed three more flights, the longest being about a quarter of a mile.

Over the next five years airglow made between 50 and 100 flights with no accidents. Typical flights would be the length of the runway, the longest flight was about 2 miles long. In 1992 Airglow was taken to Germany and flown by Peer Frank (designer of Velair 88 and Velair 89) at the Grob airfield at Mindelheim.[2]

Pressure of work meant that after 1995 airglow rarely flew. In 2010 it was passed on to the Royal Aeronautical Society.

Specifications (Airglow)

General characteristics

  • Crew: one
  • Wingspan: 31.7 m (104 ft 0 in)
  • Empty weight: 37 kg (82 lb)

Performance

  • Maximum speed: 38 km/h (24 mph, 21 kn)

Design

Airglow is a conventionally configured aircraft, the main wing forward, tail and elevator at the back, with a ‘pusher’ prop situated about a quarter of the way down the tail boom. The pilot sits recumbent in a streamlined nacelle with an open side to provide cooling. The drive mechanism is a combination of pedals, a gearbox, drive shafts and chains, powering a 2.95 meter two-bladed propeller mounted concentrically with the boom. [3]

Airglow was designed with an all-flying rudder and elevator for yaw and pitch, plus rotating wing tips for lateral stability. The aircraft employs a simple fly-by-wire control system based on lightweight control servos more normally found on radio controlled model aircraft. The rotating wingtips had limited success, and have since been fixed in a single position. The aircraft now relies on the rudder alone for turning, lateral stability is provided for by increased wing dihedral.

Power requirements vary from about 450-500 watts on take-off to about 275-300 watts for sustained flight. Power requirements increase noticeably in anything other than nil-wind conditions.[4]

Current Status

After an over a year in the custodianship of the Royal Aeronautical Society Airglow was brought out of retirement in 2011 and passed on to P&M Aviation. Despite being left for several years in a shed in the bottom of a garden the aircraft required little more than some oil on the moving parts before being flown again on 29 September at Kemble by Robin Kraike of P&M Aviation and Dr Bill Brookes from the Human Powered Flight Group of the Royal Aeronautical Society.

Airglow flew at Lasham airfield on 13 November 2011 as part of the 50th Anniversary celebrations of Derek Piggott’s pioneering HPA flight in SUMPAC.[5] [6] [7]

Icarus Cup

In August 2012 Airglow competed in the Icarus Cup at Lasham airfield against 4 other HPA. Flying in a number of events including duration, slalom, speed, un-assisted take-off and precision landing Airglow won most of the individual events and the overall competition. During the competition airglow achieved flights of well over a kilometer at speeds approaching 9 m/s.[8] These flights were only brought to an end when the pilots ran out of airfield.

Ongoing development

Airglow is currently being worked on by a small team of pilots and engineers using Airglow as a flying test bed for HPA improvements. Airglows modular design allows refinement of different sections of the aircraft (propeller, rudder, elevator, drive chain, wings etc.) without requiring major work to the rest of the aircraft.[9][10]

gollark: I don't know. You haven't described the mechanisms in any useful detail.
gollark: For example, if the battery fails, you have to get keys reloaded, and they can't be repaired by users.
gollark: I mean, they make it work a bit for credit card terminals, apparently, but those are not that user-friendly.
gollark: If you want it to be some magic untamperable hardware, that's maybe *possible* for some amount of "untamperable", but really hard and user-hostile.
gollark: As far as I know, that would just use the fingerprint scanner to unlock an encryption key on the phone.

See also

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era

References
  1. "Propdesigner". Archived from the original on 24 June 2013. Retrieved 4 September 2012.
  2. Peer Frank - Skytech]
  3. "IHPVA technical journal" (PDF). Spring 1991. Retrieved 17 September 2012.
  4. "Human Powered Flying by Chris Roper - Accessed 2008-08-14". Archived from the original on 10 February 2012. Retrieved 17 September 2012.
  5. Sale, Jonathan (9 November 2011). "The Guardian Celebrating 50 years of human-powered flight". London. Retrieved 17 September 2012.
  6. "BBC News Flight marks 50th anniversary of pedal plane's flight". 12 November 2011. Retrieved 17 September 2012.
  7. "BBC News Human-powered flight recreated for 50th anniversary". 12 November 2011. Retrieved 17 September 2012.
  8. "Royal Aeronautical Society – Icarus Cup". Archived from the original on 26 August 2012. Retrieved 4 September 2012.
  9. "Airglow HPA". Archived from the original on 6 April 2013. Retrieved 4 September 2012.
  10. "Chris Roper B. Muscle Assisted Flights Before 1939. Human Powered Flying. Accessed 2008-08-14". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 17 September 2012.


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