AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 197 / 234

Plate 197 of 234 · Cold War · Single-seat human-powered research aircraft

SUMPAC

SUMPAC (1961), painted as The sole SUMPAC, the Southampton University Man Powered Aircraft designed by the postgraduate students Alan Lassière, David Williams and Anne Marsden, in which Derek Piggott made the first authenticated take-off and flight by a human-powered aeroplane in Britain at Lasham on 9 November 1961, later rebuilt by Imperial College and now hanging at Solent Sky in Southampton: a single-seat monoplane of 80 ft span built of balsa, spruce, plywood and light alloy, with a long tapered wing of 300 sq ft, the pilot pedalling in a small pod beneath it, a tall pylon behind the wing carrying a two-bladed pusher propeller driven by a long shaft, a slim truss rear fuselage, a fin on a deep tail post and a low tailplane, shown standing level on its nose and main wheels and two wing outriggers as displayed: a silver-doped wing, the pod, rear fuselage and pylon left as orange-brown varnished frames under a clear film, the tail surfaces as bare wooden ribs under a translucent cream film, a black propeller with a brass hub, and no markings (no drawing of SUMPAC is known, so the shape was measured from photographs of the museum airframe and 1961 film, using the published span, length and wing area).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as The sole SUMPAC, the Southampton University Man Powered Aircraft designed by the postgraduate students Alan Lassière, David Williams and Anne Marsden, in which Derek Piggott made the first authenticated take-off and flight by a human-powered aeroplane in Britain at Lasham on 9 November 1961, later rebuilt by Imperial College and now hanging at Solent Sky in Southampton: a single-seat monoplane of 80 ft span built of balsa, spruce, plywood and light alloy, with a long tapered wing of 300 sq ft, the pilot pedalling in a small pod beneath it, a tall pylon behind the wing carrying a two-bladed pusher propeller driven by a long shaft, a slim truss rear fuselage, a fin on a deep tail post and a low tailplane, shown standing level on its nose and main wheels and two wing outriggers as displayed: a silver-doped wing, the pod, rear fuselage and pylon left as orange-brown varnished frames under a clear film, the tail surfaces as bare wooden ribs under a translucent cream film, a black propeller with a brass hub, and no markings (no drawing of SUMPAC is known, so the shape was measured from photographs of the museum airframe and 1961 film, using the published span, length and wing area). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (345 KB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (); engine, crew and dimensions are for the SUMPAC (1961) modelled here.

History

The SUMPAC

In 1959 the industrialist Henry Kremer offered a prize of £5,000, administered by the Royal Aeronautical Society, for the first British human-powered aeroplane to fly a figure of eight round two markers half a mile apart. In the spring of 1960, in their last term as undergraduates at Southampton University, three students, Alan Lassière, Anne Marsden and David Williams, set out to win it. They stayed on as postgraduates to design the aircraft, others joined them, and the Royal Aeronautical Society met the cost. The design was finished by September 1960 and building began in January 1961. The name, SUMPAC, stood for Southampton University Man Powered Aircraft.

SUMPAC was built like a very light glider, in balsa, spruce, plywood and light alloy, and covered in silver-doped nylon. Its wing spanned 80 ft, with an area of 300 sq ft and a deep section to give the most lift at walking pace, and the whole aircraft weighed 128 lb empty. The pilot sat in a small pod under the wing and pedalled as on a bicycle; chains carried the drive up a pylon behind the wing to a large two-bladed pusher propeller. A nose wheel and a main wheel under the pod, and a small wheel under each wing, kept it upright on the ground, and a slim open-frame fuselage carried the fin and tailplane well behind.

On 9 November 1961 at Lasham in Hampshire the gliding instructor Derek Piggott pedalled SUMPAC off the ground and flew it about 70 yards at a height of some 6 ft: the first officially authenticated take-off and flight by a human-powered aeroplane. A week later the Hatfield Man Powered Aircraft Club’s Puffin flew too. SUMPAC made about 40 flights; the longest covered some 650 yards at up to 15 ft, and the best turn it managed was about 80 degrees, so the Kremer figure of eight was always out of reach. After being damaged it was rebuilt at Imperial College with a new transmission, and a crash in 1965 ended its flying. The Kremer prize was not won until 1977, by the American Gossamer Condor.

This airframe

The original SUMPAC

SUMPACThe airframe modelled

The only SUMPAC survives in Southampton. After its flying ended it spent some years on loan to the Shuttleworth Collection, and since 1984 it has hung from the roof of the main hall of what is now Solent Sky, the city’s aviation museum. It is no longer covered as it flew: the wing keeps a silver-doped skin, but the pod, the rear fuselage and the propeller pylon now have a clear plastic covering over the varnished wooden frames, so the seat, pedals, drive and wheels can be seen inside. The model shows it as photographed there, standing level on its two pod wheels and wing outriggers: a silver wing, orange-brown varnished frames under clear film, bare wooden fin, rudder and tailplane ribs under a translucent cream film, a black propeller with a brass hub, and no markings. No drawing of SUMPAC is known, so the shape is measured from photographs of the museum airframe and from film of the 1961 flights, scaled to the published span, length and wing area; its height is estimated.

See it at Solent Sky

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the SUMPAC in one UK collection. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 234 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.