After all, Langford’s crew modified among the legendary parameters. The plane changed feathers and wax with carbon-fiber wings, and the pilot, the Greek bike owner Kanellos Kanellopoulos, didn’t flap his means into historical past—he pedaled. Plus, the 500-mile journey to Sicily appeared past mortal capability, so Langford and his crew set their sights on Santorini.
The issue with the Daedalus venture, and human-powered plane of any form, is the grueling effort to stay aloft, the danger of crashing, and the expense—none of which was misplaced on Langford. “In itself, our Daedalus venture may by no means reply the query ‘So what?’” he admits.
On the time, unseen clouds of human-generated chlorofluorocarbons, gathering in Earth’s stratosphere for half a century, had blasted a seasonal gap within the protecting ozone layer over Antarctica, signifying a catastrophe unfolding throughout Earth’s ambiance. Because the world group rallied, the “So what?” he was on the lookout for emerged.
To Langford, an entrepreneur whose twin passions are local weather analysis and sustainable aeronautics, the right airplane is an unmanned aerial car capable of ply the stratosphere, gather local weather knowledge corresponding to ozone readings, and harness the solar for its power wants. Aurora Flight Sciences, his first firm, unveiled such a airplane, Odysseus, in 2018. His newest firm, Electra, needs to decarbonize all aviation.
{That a} human-powered airplane capable of fly mere meters above the ocean for a handful of hours managed to encourage solar-powered robotic planes that repeatedly comb Earth’s stratosphere may make sense solely within the context of our local weather challenges. Such novel plane symbolize the power of human beings to realize mythic feats when joined in a typical quest, nonetheless daunting.
Invoice Gourgey is a science author based mostly in Washington, DC, and teaches science writing at Johns Hopkins College.
