The Kremer Prize had been set up in 1959 by Henry Kremer, a
British industrialist, and offered
£50,000 in prize money to the first group that could fly a human-powered aircraft over a figure-eight course covering a total of one mile (1.6 kilometers). The course also included a ten-foot pole that the aircraft had to fly over at the start and at the end. Early attempts to build human-powered aircraft had focused on wooden designs, which proved too heavy. Very early attempts – notably the ''
and Pedaliante'' – used
catapult launches. In 1961, Southampton University's Man Powered Aircraft
SUMPAC took to the air at
Lasham Airfield on 9 November, piloted by
Derek Piggott, achieving a maximum flight of . One week later, on 16 November, the
Hatfield Puffin flew, and eventually managed a maximum flight of but it was difficult to turn. The Jupiter managed in June 1972. The
Nihon Stork B achieved over in 1976. In the early 1970s,
Paul MacCready and Peter B. S. Lissaman, both of
AeroVironment Inc., took a fresh look at the challenge and came up with an unorthodox aircraft, the
Gossamer Condor. He took his inspiration from hang gliders, increasing wing area so that the drag of the wire bracing needed would be reduced. The
Gossamer Condor is built around a large wing with a gondola for the pilot underneath and a
canard control surface on a fuselage extension in front, and is mostly built of lightweight plastics with aluminum spars. ==Operational history==