MIT Daedalus
| Daedalus | |
|---|---|
| MIT Daedalus human powered aircraft in flight during testing at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center | |
| General information | |
| Type | Human powered aircraft |
| National origin | United States |
| Manufacturer | MIT - (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) |
| History | |
| First flight | 23 April 1988 |
The MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics Department's Daedalus is a class of three human-powered aircraft that included Daedalus 88 – which, on 23 April 1988, flew a distance of 115.11 kilometres (71.53 mi) in 3 hours, 54 minutes, from Heraklion on the island of Crete to the island of Santorini. The flight holds official FAI world records for total distance, straight-line distance, and duration for human-powered fixed-wing aircraft.
The class was named after the mythological inventor of aviation, Daedalus, and was inspired by the Greek myth of Daedalus' escape from Crete using manmade wings.
The three aircraft in the class are:
- Light Eagle (originally Michelob Light Eagle): a 42 kilograms (93 lb) prototype.
- Daedalus 87: Crashed during testing at Rogers Dry Lake (NASA Dryden Flight Research Center) on 17 February 1988, and was rebuilt as a backup.
- Daedalus 88: Flew from Crete to just off the beach on Santorini.
Both Daedalus 87 and Daedalus 88 weighed 31 kilograms (68 lb).
All three aircraft were constructed at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory Flight Facility at Hanscom Field outside Boston, Massachusetts, by a team of undergraduate students, faculty, and recent graduates of MIT.