Eagle Sets Record Human-Powered Flight--37 Miles

Glenn Tremml, a 26-year-old medical student, set a distance record for human-powered flight Thursday morning, pedaling a 92-pound aircraft over a dry lake bed for 37.2 miles in 2 hours, 13 minutes and 14 seconds.

He pedaled smoothly three times over the 10-mile triangular course, skimming along two to six feet above ground level, and nearly finished a fourth before a minor mishap caused the Eagle’s wheels to touch down, thus ending the historic flight.

The flight took place here under ideal flying conditions, although Tremml’s drinking water system malfunctioned, which left him dehydrated at the end of the flight.

Tremml also was distracted by a recurring difficulty in keeping his specially designed shoes on the craft’s pedals, which are linked to the propeller. When his foot slipped off the pedal for the fourth time, the plane touched the ground.

If not for the water and pedal problems, “I could have gone a lot further today,” said Tremml, a second-year student at the University of Connecticut.

The temperature here was hovering near 20 degrees when Tremml was sealed into the cockpit of the Eagle, clad only in black bicycling shorts and a T-shirt. “Once I got in the cockpit, the sun was shining and I was cool and comfortable,” he said.

After the Massachusetts Institute of Technology team that built the Eagle carefully swept dirt and sand off the launching ramp to protect the plane’s fragile wheels, Tremml cycled aloft at 8:24 a.m.

Averages 16 M.P.H.

The stately craft averaged about 16 m.p.h.

Followed by a small convoy of official vehicles and two flatbed trucks filled with photographers, Tremml broke the existing duration record of 22 miles at 9:46 a.m.

That record was set in 1979 by Bryan Allen when he pedaled the Gossamer Albatross across the English Channel. Allen’s flight had been impeded by strong head winds and had taken 2 hours and 49 minutes. He became severely dehydrated when he ran out of water after 1 1/2 hours.

The Eagle carried 4.4 pounds of water to replace fluids that Tremml would lose through perspiration. He planned to drink a little over a quart of water per hour, but the tube that was to deliver it to his mouth produced only about 1 1/2 cups total.

“I finally gave up because when I was playing around with the water system too much, I wasn’t paying enough attention to my flying,” he said.

“It was very frustrating. By the third lap, I was beginning to get thirsty,” Tremml added. “I was very pleased I could go as far as I did without water, but that’s not what you want to do.” He lost three pounds during the flight.

Condensation Problem

Midway through the flight, some of the water that Tremml lost through perspiration began to condense on the inside of the transparent cockpit. And by the fourth lap, “I could barely see through the front of the window,” he said. “That made it a little hard to get through the turns.”

Shortly before the end of the first circuit, his left foot slipped off the pedal. The craft does not have conventional bicycle pedals, but smooth metal rods. Tremml wore special shoes whose soles were attached to C-shaped clamps that snapped onto the rods.

“When I put a lot of pressure on the pedals, they tended to slip toward the end of the bar and I couldn’t pull them back,” he said. “At the beginning of the flight, I could keep them from coming off, but as I got fatigued it became more difficult.”

After Tremml touched down, he sat in the cockpit for a moment while his shoes were removed. Then he climbed slowly upright to be embraced by team members.

“I feel great,” he said. “The toughest thing was that there wasn’t a finish line--I had to keep setting mental goals for myself. When we started, I wanted to go 30 miles or two hours, whichever came last. Then my goal was 2 hours. . . . “ The flight took place in a secured area of the sprawling air base that was not open to the public.

Two More Surprises

After the flight, the Eagle had two more surprises for its builders. It weighed four pounds heavier than expected and had a wingspan of 114 feet, two more than expected.

John S. Langford, leader of the project, attributed the extra weight to radio gear and to new wing tips, which proved heavier than anticipated. The extra width, he said, came from foam tips on the wings that had not been included in their calculations.

The MIT team plans to spend another week here to gather further engineering data about the Eagle and to conduct further tests. That information will be used to construct a second plane, to be called the Daedalus, with which the team plans a 69-mile flight from the Mediterranean island of Crete to mainland Greece.

That attempt is scheduled for next fall or the spring of 1988.