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1 MacCready, Paul
SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace[br]b. 29 September 1925 New Haven, Connecticut, USA[br]American designer of man-powered aeroplanes, one of which flew across the English Channel in 1979.[br]As a boy, Paul MacCready was an enthusiastic builder of flying model aeroplanes; he became US National Junior Champion in 1941. He learned to fly and became a pilot with the US Navy in 1943. he developed an interest in gliding in 1945 and became National Soaring Champion in 1948 and 1949. After graduating from the California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech) as a meteorologist, he set up Meteorological Research Inc. In 1953 MacCready became the first American to win the World Gliding Championship. When hang-gliders became popular in the early 1970s MacCready studied their performance and compared them with soaring birds: he came to the conclusion that man-powered flight was a possibility. In an effort to generate an interest in man-powered flight, a cash prize had been offered in Britain by Henry Kremer, a wealthy industrialist and fitness enthusiast. A man-powered aircraft had to complete a one-mile (1.6km) figure-of-eight course in order to win. However, the figure-of-eight proved to be a major obstacle and the prize money was increased over the years to £50,000. In 1976 MacCready and his friend Dr Peter Lissaman set to work on their computer and came up with their optimum design for a man-powered aircraft. The Gossamer Condor had a wing span of 96 ft (27.4 m), about the same as a Douglas DC-9 airliner, yet it weighed just 70 lb (32 kg). It was a tail-first design with a pedaldriven pusher propeller just behind the pilot. Bryan Allen, a biologist, pilot and racing cyclist, joined the team to provide the muscle-power. After over two hundred flights they were ready to make an attempt on the prize, and on 23 August 1977 they succeeded where many had failed, in 7 minutes. Kremer then offered £100,000 for the first manpowered flight across the English Channel. Many thought this would be impossible, but MacCready and his team set about the task of designing a new machine based on their Condor, which they called the Gossamer Albatross. Bryan Allen also had a major task: getting fit for a flight which might take three hours of pedalling. The weather was more of a problem than in California, and after a long delay the Gossamer Albatross took off, on 12 June 1979. After pedalling for 2 hours 49 minutes, Bryan Allen landed in France: it was seventy years since Blériot's flight, although Blériot was much quicker.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsWorld Gliding Champion 1953.Bibliography1979, "The Channel crossing and the future", Man Powered Aircraft Symposium, London: Royal Aeronautical Society.Further ReadingM.Grosser, 1981, Gossamer Odyssey, London (provides a brief biography and detailed accounts of the two aircraft).M.F.Jerram, 1980, Incredible Flying Machines, London (a short survey of pedal planes).Articles by Ron Moulton on the Gossamer Albatross appeared in Aerospace (Royal Aeronautical Society) London, August/September 1979, and the Aeromodeller, London, September 1979.JDS -
2 Royce, Sir Frederick Henry
[br]b. 27 March 1863 Alwalton, Huntingdonshire, Englandd. 22 April 1933 West Wittering, Sussex, England.[br]English engineer and industrialist.[br]Royce was the younger son of a flour miller. His father's death forced him to earn his own living from the age of 10 selling newspapers, as a post office messenger boy, and in other jobs. At the age of 14, he became an apprentice at the Great Northern Railway's locomotive works, but was unable to complete his apprenticeship due to a shortage of money. He moved to a tool company in Leeds, then in 1882 he became a tester for the London Electric Light \& Power Company and attended classes at the City \& Guilds Technical College. In the same year, the company made him Chief Electrical Engineer for the lighting of the streets of Liverpool.In 1884, at the age of 21, he founded F.H. Royce \& Co (later called Royce Ltd, from 1894 to 1933) with a capital of £70, manufacturing arc lamps, dynamos and electric cranes. In 1903, he bought a 10 hp Deauville car which proved noisy and unreliable; he therefore designed his own car. By the end of 1903 he had produced a twocylinder engine which ran for many hundreds of hours driving dynamos; on 31 March 1904, a 10 hp Royce car was driven smoothly and silently from the works in Cooke Street, Manchester. This car so impressed Charles S. Rolls, whose London firm were agents for high-class continental cars, that he agreed to take the entire output from the Manchester works. In 1906 they jointly formed Rolls-Royce Ltd and at the end of that year Royce produced the first 40/50 hp Silver Ghost, which remained in production until 1925 when it was replaced by the Phantom and Wraith. The demand for the cars grew so great that in 1908 manufacture was transferred to a new factory in Derby.In 1911 Royce had a breakdown due to overwork and his lack of attention to taking regular meals. From that time he never returned to the works but continued in charge of design from a drawing office in his home in the south of France and later at West Wittering, Sussex, England. During the First World War he designed the Falcon, Hawk and Condor engines as well as the VI2 Eagle, all of which were liquid-cooled. Later he designed the 36.7-litre Rolls-Royce R engines for the Vickers Supermarine S.6 and S.6B seaplanes which were entered for the Schneider Trophy (which they won in 1929 and 1931, the 5.5 having won in 1927 with a Napier Lion engine) and set a world speed record of 408 mph (657 km/h) in 1931; the 1941 Griffon engine was derived from the R.Royce was an improver rather than an innovator, though he did invent a silent form of valve gear, a friction-damped slipper flywheel, the Royce carburettor and a spring drive for timing gears. He was a modest man with a remarkable memory who concentrated on perfecting the detail of every component. He married Minnie Punt, but they had no children. A bust of him at the Derby factory is captioned simply "Henry Royce, Mechanic".[br]Further ReadingR.Bird, 1995, Rolls Royce Heritage, London: Osprey.IMcNBiographical history of technology > Royce, Sir Frederick Henry
См. также в других словарях:
Condor — oder Cóndor (Bezeichnung für die beiden Kondor genannten Vogelarten in verschiedenen Sprachen) steht für: einen Ort in Südbrasilien, siehe Condor (Rio Grande do Sul) einen Berg in Argentinien, siehe El Cóndor einen Ort in der Provinz Jujuy in… … Deutsch Wikipedia
condor — [ kɔ̃dɔr ] n. m. • 1598; mot esp., du quechua du Pérou ♦ Oiseau rapace d Amérique (falconiformes), au plumage noir, frangé de blanc aux ailes. ● condor nom masculin (espagnol condor, du quechua kuntur) Très grand rapace diurne des Andes et de… … Encyclopédie Universelle
condor — CONDÓR, condori, s.m. Cel mai mare vultur, cu capul şi cu gâtul golaş, complet mut, care trăieşte în munţii Americii de Sud (Sarcorhamphus gryphus). [acc. şi: cóndor] – Din fr. condor. Trimis de ana zecheru, 15.05.2003. Sursa: DEX 98 … … Dicționar Român
Condor 10 — À Saint Malo (2003) Autres noms Condor Ten (1992) Type Ferry Histoire Lancement … Wikipédia en Français
Condor — Con dor (k[o^]n d[o^]r; in defs. 2 & 3, k[ o]n d[ o]r), n. [Sp. condor, fr. Peruvian cuntur.] 1. (Zo[ o]l.) A very large bird of the Vulture family ({Sarcorhamphus gryphus}), found in the most elevated parts of the Andes. [1913 Webster] 2. (Zo[… … The Collaborative International Dictionary of English
CONDOR — ist die auflagenstärkste deutschsprachige Zeitung Chiles. Sie erscheint seit 1938 und erreicht heute eine Auflagenstärke von etwa 6.000 Stück, hat jedoch eine höhere Anzahl von Lesern. Sie informiert ihre Leser wöchentlich über die Politik Chiles … Deutsch Wikipedia
condor — [kän′dər, kän′dôr; ] for 3, Sp [ kō̂n′dō̂r΄] n. [Sp cóndor < Quechuan cuntur] 1. a very large vulture (Vultur gryphus) of the South American Andes, with black plumage, bare head and neck, and a ruff of downy white feathers at the base of the … English World dictionary
Condor [1] — Condor, Inseln, so v. w. Pulo Condor (P. Condore) … Pierer's Universal-Lexikon
Condor [2] — Condor (Sarcoramphus Gryphus Dumer., Vultur Gr. Lin., Kondur, Greifgeier), ein geierartiger Raubvogel aus der Gattung der Kronengeier, die sich durch durchgehende Nasenlöcher u. einen fleischig knorpeligen Stirnkamm der Männchen von den Geiern… … Pierer's Universal-Lexikon
Condor — Condor, Goldmünze in Chile, = 20 Pesos = 30,64 Mk.; in Kolumbien 1853 mit 14,76 g Gold, auch 1/2 und 1/2 Stücke, seit dem Gesetz von 1857 die halbe Onza = 40,5 Mk., auch doppelt … Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon
Condor — Condor, südamerik. Goldmünze, in Neugranada von 1853 57 = 41,18 M, nach 1857 = 401/2 M, in Chile = 38,3 M, seit 1895 = 30,64 M … Kleines Konversations-Lexikon
