Machines | DaSH PA Human Powered Airplane
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The DaSH PA project stands for "Dead Simple Human Powered Airplane" -- a project started by a group of engineers, just for the fun; to learn while designing and building something challenging and a bit out there. We will talk about the mechanical design challenges in the project and how computing resources were put to bear on both the design of the airplane through finite element analysis and on our plans for the avionics -- the sensors, display and downlink. We will first cover the history of human powered flight and discuss the motivation for starting the project. Then we will talk about the design of the airplane, how computing resources were used in the design process, and how they were not used. Finally, we'll talk a lot about the construction techniques and how one goes about building an airplane that is half the weight of the pilot but has a wingspan larger than a 737 jetliner. This flight was, as measured by GPS, 233 m Alec Proudfoot of Proudfoot Design is Chief Designer on the DaSH human powered airplane project. He was the engineer at Google Inc. who started the RechargeIT plug-in vehicle project. He was a member of the engineering team that created the GM Impact prototype. This was produced as the GM EV1, the first modern high power AC induction electric vehicle. Alec has followed the alternative fuel vehicle scene as an engineer, a consumer, and journalist -- some of his footage appeared in the documentary film "Who Killed the Electric Car." In addition to his alternative fuel vehicle work, Alec's engineering career, spans fields from aviation to medical devices to telecommunications, and has also worked as a professional helicopter pilot.
Comments
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That human-powdered plain looks transparent.
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Why not connect the propeller to a small air compressor which is powered by pedaling. That way, all the person has to do is pedal to stock the compressor, then let the compressor do most of the work. If the compressor gets low, start pedaling again.
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Would it be more efficient to use the wings as propeller? It seems like if you could make the wings double as a propulsion and lift mechanism some weight could be shed. Also the pilot could use a body movements to make the wings flap without a transmission.
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congrats on your success. I am currently leading the Bath University efforts. we are about to start work on the cockpit fairing and I was wondering what material(s) you used to construct the fairing structure?
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Is floating along in ground effect really "flying" ?
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Bravo! And if you add a pedal assist electrical system like some tricycles and bicycles have, you can take off even easier.
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Congratulations! You and your team did a fantastic job.
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Inspired and happy that the DaSH aircraft had a successful first flight. Good job Alec and DaSH Team!
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Great documentation, Walter! Congrats to all on the team!
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Awesome! What a great first flight!
CONGRATS!!!! -
Wow! You did it!!!
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Very cool Alec. Congrats!