Man-Powered Craft Matches Mythical Feat

Retracing the mythical flight of Daedalus, a U.S.-designed human-powered aircraft set a world distance record Saturday by flying 74 miles from Crete to a crash-landing on the shores of another Aegean island.

Pilot Kanellos Kanellopoulos, a Greek cycling champion who pedaled the craft from Crete to Santorini, was not hurt when the craft plunged into the sea about 30 feet from shore.

“During the flight everything went well, and I thought it was very easy,” he told reporters after his 3-hour, 55-minute adventure over the Sea of Crete.

The Daedalus 88 was designed and constructed by students and faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.

Taking off from Heraklion Airport in Crete at 7:05 a.m. local time, the craft crash-landed at Santorini at 11 a.m., Ball said, for an average speed of 18.5 m.p.h. The flight more than doubled the existing distance record, set in January, 1987, by another pilot on the Daedalus project, spokesman Charles Ball said. Glenn Tremml, a medical student, flew about 37 miles in 2 hours and 13 minutes at Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California, Ball said.

The record for a straight-line flight was set June 12, 1979, when Brian Allen piloted the Gossamer Albatross about 22 miles across the English Channel.

After takeoff, Kanellopoulos flew about 15 feet above the waves, escorted to Santorini by two Greek coast guard vessels, a Greek navy patrol boat and MIT project members, who followed in inflatable boats and were in constant radio contact.

Problems on Landing

Speaking at a packed press conference in Athens after being flown by helicopter from Santorini, Kanellopoulos said the hardest part of the flight was when he turned the craft against the wind to land it on the island.

“The craft’s wings and tail then broke up and I crashed in the sea a few meters from the shore. It was a very rough situation as the plane was not built to endure strong (wind) currents,” he said.

“The craft went under the water and, breaking my way through the fragile cockpit, I swam to the shore,” he added.

Asked if he panicked at any time during the flight, Kanellopoulos said: “There was no time to panic. I just prayed that everything would go well.”

“It’s a very fragile aircraft,” project spokesman Ball said. “As it was trying to land on the beach, it was actually hovering 10 to 12 feet above the ground and could not get down because of the wind. The wind snapped the tail, the plane collapsed and fell into the water 20 to 30 feet off the beach.”

The Daedalus has a wingspan of 112 feet, about the same as a DC-9 commercial airliner, but weighs just 70 pounds.

Eric Schmidt, 25, a standby pilot from Boulder, Colo., who followed the plane aboard the Greek navy ship, said the crash was “sort of shocking.”

But, “we found him (Kanellopoulos) later on the beach, happy, smiling and drinking champagne” to celebrate his flight, Schmidt said.

Given Hero’s Welcome

Stelios Petropoulos, a travel agent who watched the Daedalus approach the island, said Kanellopoulos was “given a hero’s welcome” by some 1,000 islanders.

“He was mobbed,” Petropoulos said. “Everybody wanted to touch him.”

Kanellopoulos said that he had to pedal “all the time” in the air and that he could only slightly alter the speed of the plane by manipulating the propellers from inside the cockpit.

Apart from the crash, Kanellopoulos said, “this plane was just perfect,” and he was only “really worried” during the takeoff because of fears the plane might not become airborne if damaged.

Once in the air, he said, “it was just wonderful.”

Greek mythology holds that Daedalus, a brilliant Athenian craftsman and inventor who was held prisoner on Crete after incurring the wrath of King Minos, escaped after fashioning wings of wax and feathers for himself and his son, Icarus.

Despite warnings from his father, Icarus flew too high, the sun melted his wings’ wax and he plunged into the sea and died.