Gossamer Albatross

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Gossamer Albatross aircraft See aircraft. Gossamer Albatross. 

Figure 5.8 Mylar, a polyester developed by E. I. DuPont deNemours Co., was used to cover the wings and pilots compartment of the Gossamer Albatross, the first human-powered aircraft to fly across the English Channel.

The same polyester can be fabricated into a particularly strong film called Mylar. Mylar polyester film is used for the long-term protection of artwork and historical documents because of its transparency, strength, and inertness. Mylar is popular for its use in the manufacture of balloons for festive occasions. Mylar was also used to cover the 94-foot wingspan of the Gossamer Albatross, a human-powered aircraft used to fly the English Channel in 1979. Only two pounds of the polyester was needed to cover the entire wingspan, and the polyamide Kevlar was the material used for construction of the rudder of this aircraft In the United States, production of polyester fibers exceeds 3 billion pounds per year. 

Gossamer Condor (Paul MacCready) MacCready designs the Gossamer Albatross, which enables human-powered flight. 

Figure 1-24. The Gossamer Albatross, a human-powered all-plastic airplane that conquered the English Channel in 1979, used Du Font s Mylar bioriented TP polyester film, Kevlar aramid fiber, Delrin acetal resin. Dacron TP polyester fiber, and nylon as key elements in its construction. This innovative use of lightweight engineered plastics used bicycle pedals to provide power to a propeller.

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