Gossamer Aircraft and where they lead
Deutscher übersetzter Titel: | Gossamer Flugzeuge und ihre Zukunft |
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Autor: | MacCready, Paul B. |
Herausgeber: | Wilson, David Gordon; Abbott, Allan V. |
Erschienen in: | Human-powered vehicles |
Veröffentlicht: | Champaign: Human Kinetics (Verlag), 1995, 1995. S. 239-245, Lit., Lit. |
Format: | Literatur (SPOLIT) |
Publikationstyp: | Sammelwerksbeitrag |
Medienart: | Gedruckte Ressource |
Sprache: | Englisch |
ISBN: | 0873228278 |
Schlagworte: | |
Online Zugang: | |
Erfassungsnummer: | PU199910402257 |
Quelle: | BISp |
Abstract des Autors
Winning the first Kremer Prize in 1977 with the Gossamer Condor started the Gossamer team on a series of unusual developments that are still continuing. The focus here is on the primary Gossamer aircraft, the Gossamer Condor and the Gossamer Albatross. Gossamer is a noun denoting spider threads that occasionally drift and alight in such profusion that they cover a grassy field; the word has come to mean something fragile, flimsy, tenuous, cobweblike - and so is appropriate for these transparent wire-braced, human-powered airplanes. We chose condor in honor of the giant, ugly, slow flying, impractical (and nearly extinct) California condor. Albatross was chosen because it represents the large, slender-winged bird that soars for long distances just over the waves. We also mention the Gossamer Penguin - a three-quarter-size backup version of the Gossamer Albatross that was pressed into service as a research tool for solar-powered flight. The transparent Bionic Bat that won two Kremer speed prizes was somewhat analogous to the Gossamer Condor and the Gossamer Albatross, in being fragile and thus, for safety, limited to flight no higher than 5 to 7 m (15 to 20 ft). It melded an electrical power system with human muscle, thus perfectly fitting the word bionic. Bat seemed an appropriate name: a mammal that flies silently close to the ground in the still air or of dusk. Verf.-Referat