By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The Air Force plans to design and develop a man-powered aircraft next year to make South Korea the world's fifth country to run such a plane, the service said Tuesday.
A team of seven professors and researchers from the Korea Air Force Academy has launched the project valued at $290,000 and will complete the design of the pedal-powered plane, it said.
The team is to complete the development of a prototype between January and June next year for trial flights before the Seoul Air Show slated for October, it said.
``This project is part of our human being's long-standing challenge and dream to fly,'' said Choi Sung-ok leading the research team. ``Based upon our Air Force's spirit of challenge, we will make utmost efforts to achieve the goal and upgrade the Korean Air Force's global status.''
A human-powered aircraft (HPA) is a vehicle powered by direct human energy and the force of gravity; the thrust provided by the human may be the only source.
Only four nations in the world ― the United States, Britain, Japan and Germany ― have succeed in developing HPAs.
According to Choi, the envisaged Korean version of HPA will be shaped like a hangglider weighing 50 to 60 kilograms. The pilot is required to pedal to generate some 0.3 horsepower to stay in the air for up to two kilometers, he said.
Business and aerospace organizations, such as the Federation of Korean Industries, the Korea Aerospace Industries and Korean Air, are to finance the project.
The U.S.-made HPA, Daedalus, has the world records for distance and duration for human powered airplanes. The plane built by Massachusetts Institute of Technology flew 74 miles (119 kilometers) in 1988 from Irakilon Air Force Base on Crete, Greece, crashing into the sea just short of the island of Santorini in three hours and 54 minutes.