# MacCready Gossamer Albatross
The **MacCready Gossamer Albatross** is a human-powered aircraft designed by aeronautical engineer Paul B. MacCready and his team at [AeroVironment](https://www.edgepedia.org/aerovironment), and on June 12, 1979 it became the first human-powered aircraft to fly across the [English Channel](https://www.edgepedia.org/english-channel), piloted by cyclist Bryan Allen.[1](https://www.si.edu/object/nasm_A19810428000) The flight won the team its second Kremer Prize for human-powered aircraft, after the Gossamer Condor had taken the first in 1977.[1](https://www.si.edu/object/nasm_A19810428000)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Channel flight | June 12, 1979; Folkestone, England to Cap Gris Nez, France; 2 hours 49 minutes; 36.2 km (22.5 mi) per the Smithsonian[1](https://www.si.edu/object/nasm_A19810428000) |
| Pilot | Bryan Allen, a 26-year-old California cyclist and hang-glider pilot, pedaling at about 70 rpm to drive a two-bladed propeller[2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/06/13/pedal-driven-plane-flies-channel/3f6fedfb-47b9-41e3-9225-a28d907c271b/) • [6](https://time.com/archive/6846198/science-odyssey-of-the-albatross/) |
| Airframe | 96-foot wingspan; carbon fiber tubing, Mylar covering, with balsa wood, Kevlar, foam, and wire; built to be disassembled for shipping[1](https://www.si.edu/object/nasm_A19810428000) |
| Power requirement | Gossamer-class designs flew on less than 0.5 horsepower (373 watts), with wing loading under 0.5 lb/ft² (24 N/m²) at 10 to 15 mph[4](https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19830002792/downloads/19830002792.pdf) |
| Prize | Second Kremer Prize for the MacCready team; press reports gave the cross-channel purse as $200,000[2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/06/13/pedal-driven-plane-flies-channel/3f6fedfb-47b9-41e3-9225-a28d907c271b/) or $210,000[6](https://time.com/archive/6846198/science-odyssey-of-the-albatross/) |
| Albatross II | Backup craft, 94-foot span, fitted with a small battery-powered electric motor for NASA flight tests at Dryden in spring 1980[3](https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/gossamer-albatross-2/) |
| Where to see it | Gossamer Albatross I hangs at the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia[1](https://www.si.edu/object/nasm_A19810428000) |
## Design
The [Albatross](https://www.edgepedia.org/albatross) was a much-refined version of the Gossamer Condor configuration, the aircraft that in 1977 became the first human-powered plane to complete the Kremer figure-eight course.[4](https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19830002792/downloads/19830002792.pdf) The Gossamer series represented a class of ultralight designs built around an absolute minimum-power goal: power requirements below 0.5 horsepower (373 watts), wing loadings under 0.5 lb/ft² (24 N/m²), flight at 10 to 15 mph (4.5 to 6.7 m/s), a canard elevator with a pusher propeller, carbon-filament-reinforced epoxy tubing structure, and a tilting canard rudder for control.[4](https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19830002792/downloads/19830002792.pdf) Stability and handling were deliberately secondary to minimum power, and the slow speed, very light wing loading, and near-neutral stability produced unusual apparent-mass aerodynamic effects and motion responses that NASA later analyzed in detail.[4](https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19830002792/downloads/19830002792.pdf)
The airframe used carbon fiber tubing as its basic frame, covered with clear Mylar, with balsa wood, Kevlar, foam, and wire in the structure.[1](https://www.si.edu/object/nasm_A19810428000) Unlike the Condor, it was designed to be easily disassembled for shipping.[1](https://www.si.edu/object/nasm_A19810428000) Published weights differ: TIME described a 75-pound machine, the Washington Post reported 60 pounds, and the Science Place Foundation gives 71 pounds without a pilot.[6](https://time.com/archive/6846198/science-odyssey-of-the-albatross/) • [2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/06/13/pedal-driven-plane-flies-channel/3f6fedfb-47b9-41e3-9225-a28d907c271b/) • [9](https://www.scienceplacefoundation.org/pages/gossamer/) MacCready cut weight, in TIME's account, "an ounce at a time," using Du Pont-donated Mylar film for the sheathing, Kevlar fibers for control lines, and graphite fabric for struts.[6](https://time.com/archive/6846198/science-odyssey-of-the-albatross/)
## The Channel flight
The Kremer cross-channel challenge, worth £100,000 and offered by British industrialist Henry Kremer, required a heavier-than-air craft to take off from the ground and cross the Channel powered only by human muscle.[6](https://time.com/archive/6846198/science-odyssey-of-the-albatross/) • [2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/06/13/pedal-driven-plane-flies-channel/3f6fedfb-47b9-41e3-9225-a28d907c271b/) MacCready brought the Albatross, Allen, and a crew to Britain to wait for a calm dawn; even a six-knot breeze was considered dangerous for the craft.[6](https://time.com/archive/6846198/science-odyssey-of-the-albatross/)
On the morning of June 12, 1979, the plane was assembled two hours before dawn. The first takeoff attempt failed, and a second attempt got the Albatross airborne.[2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/06/13/pedal-driven-plane-flies-channel/3f6fedfb-47b9-41e3-9225-a28d907c271b/) Allen, generating about a third of a horsepower with his legs, flew 10 to 30 feet above the water at roughly 8 mph against a slight headwind, according to the Washington Post's contemporaneous report; Transportation History gives a top speed of 18 mph (29 km/h) and an average altitude of five feet (1.5 m).[2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/06/13/pedal-driven-plane-flies-channel/3f6fedfb-47b9-41e3-9225-a28d907c271b/) • [5](https://transportationhistory.org/2023/06/12/1979-the-pioneering-flight-of-the-gossamer-albatross-across-the-english-channel/) Midway across, Allen had to change course twice, once around a supertanker and once to stay with the accompanying boat.[2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/06/13/pedal-driven-plane-flies-channel/3f6fedfb-47b9-41e3-9225-a28d907c271b/)
He landed at Cap Gris Nez after 2 hours and 49 minutes in the air. The Smithsonian records the distance as 36.2 kilometers (22.5 miles); Transportation History gives 22.2 miles (35.7 km), and TIME's cover story gave 23 watery miles.[1](https://www.si.edu/object/nasm_A19810428000) • [5](https://transportationhistory.org/2023/06/12/1979-the-pioneering-flight-of-the-gossamer-albatross-across-the-english-channel/) • [6](https://time.com/archive/6846198/science-odyssey-of-the-albatross/) The flight broke Allen's own world distance record for muscle-powered flight and earned the second Kremer Prize for the team.[2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/06/13/pedal-driven-plane-flies-channel/3f6fedfb-47b9-41e3-9225-a28d907c271b/) • [1](https://www.si.edu/object/nasm_A19810428000) The landing damaged a wing, ending a planned demonstration at that week's Paris air show.[2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/06/13/pedal-driven-plane-flies-channel/3f6fedfb-47b9-41e3-9225-a28d907c271b/)
## Gossamer Albatross II and NASA research
A second aircraft, the Gossamer Albatross II, was built as the backup for the Channel crossing; it set its own record with the first controlled indoor flight by a human-powered aircraft, in the Houston Astrodome.[5](https://transportationhistory.org/2023/06/12/1979-the-pioneering-flight-of-the-gossamer-albatross-across-the-english-channel/) NASA fitted it with a small battery-powered electric motor and flight instruments for a joint Langley/Dryden low-speed flight research project at Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, in the spring of 1980, completing the testing and beginning analysis in April 1980.[3](https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/gossamer-albatross-2/) Over a six-week program the 94-foot-span craft flew 17 data-gathering flights and 10 others in three configurations: human power, a small electric motor, and towed with the propeller removed.[3](https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/gossamer-albatross-2/)
The resulting data on the aerodynamics, performance, stability, and control of large, lightweight, slow-flying aircraft fed directly into later high-altitude projects, and the Albatross's minimal power requirement suggested solar-powered flight, leading to AeroVironment's later solar aircraft such as the [Gossamer Penguin](https://www.edgepedia.org/maccready-gossamer-penguin), the first piloted aircraft to fly solely on sunlight, and the Solar Challenger.[3](https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/gossamer-albatross-2/) • [4](https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19830002792/downloads/19830002792.pdf) MacCready received the [Collier Trophy](https://www.edgepedia.org/collier-trophy), described by NASA as the most prestigious prize in American aviation, for the record project.[3](https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/gossamer-albatross-2/)
## Records and successors
The Albatross's Channel distance stood as the human-powered flight distance record until January 22, 1987, when MIT's Light Eagle reset the closed-course mark, and it was surpassed outright on April 23, 1988, when the [MIT Daedalus](https://www.edgepedia.org/mit-daedalus) 88 flew 115.11 km (71.52 miles) from [Heraklion](https://www.edgepedia.org/heraklion), Crete, to [Santorini](https://www.edgepedia.org/santorini) in 3 hours 54 minutes, records that still stand for distance and duration.[7](https://news.mit.edu/2008/daedalus-0422) • [8](https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/longest-human-powered-flight-%28distance%29) Daedalus's cruise speed of 15.4 mph (24.8 km/h) was also higher than the Albatross's 12.1 mph (19.5 km/h) on the Channel crossing.[10](https://www.humanpoweredflight.co.uk/page/human-powered-flight-daedalus) The original Gossamer Albatross I remains on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center.[1](https://www.si.edu/object/nasm_A19810428000)
## References
1. [MacCready "Gossamer Albatross", Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum](https://www.si.edu/object/nasm_A19810428000)
2. [Pedal-Driven Plane Flies Channel, The Washington Post, June 13, 1979](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/06/13/pedal-driven-plane-flies-channel/3f6fedfb-47b9-41e3-9225-a28d907c271b/)
3. [Gossamer Albatross, NASA image article](https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/gossamer-albatross-2/)
4. [Stability and Control of the Gossamer Human Powered Aircraft by Analysis and Flight Test, NASA CR-3625 (Jex & Mitchell, October 1982)](https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19830002792/downloads/19830002792.pdf)
5. [1979: The Pioneering Flight of the Gossamer Albatross Across the English Channel, Transportation History](https://transportationhistory.org/2023/06/12/1979-the-pioneering-flight-of-the-gossamer-albatross-across-the-english-channel/)
6. [Science: Odyssey of the Albatross, TIME, June 25, 1979](https://time.com/archive/6846198/science-odyssey-of-the-albatross/)
7. [Record-breaking Daedalus project marks 20th anniversary, MIT News](https://news.mit.edu/2008/daedalus-0422)
8. [Longest human powered flight (distance), Guinness World Records](https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/longest-human-powered-flight-%28distance%29)
9. [The Gossamer Penguin, The Science Place Foundation](https://www.scienceplacefoundation.org/pages/gossamer/)
10. [Human Powered Flight Daedalus, humanpoweredflight.co.uk](https://www.humanpoweredflight.co.uk/page/human-powered-flight-daedalus)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Technology and the built world › Transport and spaceflight › Aviation › Aircraft › Experimental and advanced aircraft › Human-powered aircraft › Gossamer series and Kremer-era aircraft*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 15, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 15, 2026 · Last review: Oct 15, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license