Jul 7 1981
From The Space Library
A 122-pound Colorado pilot, Stephen Ptacek, steered Dr. Paul MacCready's Solar Challenger (a 210-pound aircraft made of lightweight DuPont synthetics and powered solely by 16,000 photovoltaic cells on its 47-foot wingspan) across the English Channel from Cormeilles-en -Vexin 25 miles northwest of Paris to a Royal Air Force base at Manston on England's southeast coast, a 51/2-hour flight of 165 miles at an average speed of 30 mph and a cruising altitude of 11,000 feet. Other planes had flown on solar power, but Challenger was the only one to do so without storage batteries. The project was largely financed by DuPont, maker of the Lucite windscreen, Mylar sheathing, and Kevlar-fiber struts.
MacCready said that his solar plane was no serious alternative for air travel, but the flight was to highlight "irrational" dependence on fossil fuels. He had built the first human powered aircraft, Gossamer Condor, which flew in 1977, winning the $100,000 Kremer prize and earning the Condor a place beside the Wright flyer in the National Air and Space Museum. He had also made the Gossamer Albatross, which flew the Channel in 1979 under human legpower, NOT winning a $213,000 prize and a Royal Aeronautical Society trophy. (NY Times, June 9/81, C-1; July 8/81, A-1; July 12, 22E; W Post, July 8/81, A-20; W Star, July 8/81, A-2; Av Wk. July 13/81, 21; Ns wk, July 20/81, 50; Time, July 20/81, 45)
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