__NOTOC__
The Southend MPG ''Mayfly'' was a British two-seat
human-powered aircraft
A human-powered aircraft (HPA) is an aircraft belonging to the class of vehicles known as human-powered transport.
As its name suggests, HPAs have the pilot not only steer, but power the aircraft (usually propeller-driven) by means of a system ...
built by members of the Southend Man-Powered Group in the 1960s. It was one of the first two-person human-powered aircraft to have been built and tested, although it never flew.
Development
The Southend
Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in south-eastern Essex, England. It lies on the nor ...
Man Powered Group was formed by Brian Kerry, an aerodynamicist then working at Aviation Traders
Aviation Traders Limited (ATL) was a war-surplus aircraft and spares trader formed in 1947. In 1949, it began maintaining aircraft used by some of Britain's contemporary independent airlines on the Berlin Airlift. In the early 1950s, it branched ...
company, in order to help realise a two-person human-powered aircraft he had designed, though several other members of the group later provided design input.[ Although some observers claim they saw light under the wheels on some runs, no flights were made.
Issues around poor design and execution impacted the enthusiasm of the members of the Southend MP Group, with that declining as the project wore on. In 1967, a partial collapse of a ]Nissen hut
A Nissen hut is a prefabricated steel structure originally for military use, especially as barracks, made from a 210° portion of a cylindrical skin of corrugated iron. It was designed during the First World War by the Canadian-American-British e ...
, in which the aircraft had been stored, damaged the wing sections, effectively ending the project.[ One contemporary author said of the ''Mayfly'', that it never flew, due to "plain bad luck".]
Design
The aircraft had a tractor monoplane configuration, with the two occupants sitting side-by-side at the very nose of the fuselage. It was a high-wing monoplane. The wing had a constant-chord centre section, with the chord measuring 4 ft 6 in, and tapering outboard sections. Conventional ailerons were fitted, and measured 18 ft in span. The tailplane was all-flying and measured 11 ft by 3 ft. Construction was a mixture of light wood and steel tube. The aircraft was largely covered in aluminised ''Meculon'' plastic film.[
The ''Mayflys crew sat in a reclining position and powered the tractor propeller, mounted on top of a pylon, using a novel steel cable transmission system which avoided the need for gears and bevels.]
Specifications
See also
References
}
Bibliography
{{refend
1960s British experimental aircraft
Human-powered aircraft
Tractor aircraft
Twin-engined single-prop tractor aircraft
High-wing aircraft
Unflown aircraft
Aircraft with fixed bicycle landing gear