Bryan Allen (hang glider)

This article is about Bryan Allen, the hang glider pilot. For the hockey player, see Bryan Allen (ice hockey).

Bryan L. Allen is an American self-taught hang glider pilot and bicyclist. He achieved fame when he piloted (and provided the human power for) the two aircraft that won the first two Kremer prizes for human-powered flight, the Gossamer Condor (1977; the first human-powered aircraft to fly and meet specified criteria)[1] and Gossamer Albatross (1979; the first human-powered aircraft to cross the English Channel).[2] He later set world distance and duration records in a small pedal-powered blimp named "White Dwarf."[3]

Biography

Allen graduated from Tulare Union High School in Tulare, California. He then attended the College of the Sequoias, and Cal State Bakersfield.

As of 2013, he is employed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, working as a software engineer in the area of Mars exploration.[4]

External links

References

  1. ↑ Bryan Allen - hardest-working pilot ever
  2. ↑ Description of Gossamer Albatross in Smithsonian Museum
  3. ↑ The White Dwarf Flies Again
  4. ↑ The care and feeding of the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Ground Data System (GDS) (2005), NASA Technical Reports Server, Allen et al. authors


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