posted by admin on May 5

If you can, then you better start making plans to spend the £50,000 prize money!

Or, better still invent a plane that can fulfil the maneuverability guidelines required to win £100,000 instead – although this might take a little longer at the drawing board!

For years humans have dreamed of the idea of human powered flight – although the old ‘wings strapped to the arms’ is a definite no-no!   As you would expect though, Leonardo de Vinci had a try at designing a plane or 2 along with dozens of other not-so-successful attempts over the following centuries.

With still not a hope of staying in the air for more than a micro-second, in the mid-20th century - the Kremer Prize was put to the invention world by the Royal Aeronautical Society of Great Britain.  There main aim was to spur on the hope of man-powered flight with large amounts of cash!

First Prize:
From the creation of the awards to the first prize being collected was a very long 18 years – and there were still another 5 prizes to be won.

This first prize (£50,000) was won by a plane weighing 32kg with a 29 meter wingspan called the Gossamer Condor in 1977 – and it had had to fly a specific figure-of-eight course at a height of over 10 feet from the ground.

The second prize for distance (£100,000) was won by the same team in 1979 but with their modified plane – the Gossamer Albatross – clocking up an average speed of 18 miles per hour (29km/h).

The third prize was for speed (£20,000) was won in 1983 by a team from MIT – but this still leaves 3 prizes totalling £150,000!

Remaining Prizes:
So, do you think you could see yourself winning 1 of the remaining prizes?  Could you invent the best human-powered plane ever to take to the skies?

I mean now would be the perfect time to perfect a mode of transport that uses no fossil fuels and emits not an ounce of carbon (apart from in the poor peddler’s breath!).

Well?
The prizes you need to aim for are needless to say – not the easiest ones – as they have already been claimed, so what you are left with are the following:

A) 26 Mile Marathon Course In Under An Hour (£50,000)

B) Sporting Aircraft Challenge – stressing maneuverability (100,000)

C) Local School Challenge – for under 18′s (various prizes awarded annually)   

Still think you are up for the challenge?
It would be amazing to think of the multiple advantages to science of the creation of a way to harness human energy and turn it into a forward force.  Obviously the power need not be used for flight, but could be transferred to power just about anything.

Technological advances in these new inventions could lead virtually anywhere – and that is what these awards are trying to promote.

And – if you are not so keen on inventing planes, then take a look at the Sikorsky Prize instead – and build yourself a human powered helicopter instead!  This would win you and your team a tasty $250,000! 

Good Luck!