2/29/1988

People Magazine Archive

“Engineer John Langford and the Daedalus Project Fly in the Slipstream of a Myth” by David Grogan with contribution from David Lustig

Excerpt:

But the ultimate challenge is one of human stamina. For four months, five world-class cyclists have been training at Edwards, cycling 500 miles a week between workouts in a prototype plane. To fly from Crete to Santorini, the pilot must pedal nonstop at up to 80 rpm for 4½ to 6 hours. "If they rest, the plane goes down—it's that simple," says Ethan Nadel, a Yale physiologist working on the project. "It's like running two marathons back to back."

Luck and Mother Nature will decide which pilot is chosen to make the actual flight. The pilots are on staggered three-day training cycles, and the one in peak condition on the day weather conditions are optimal will get the nod. The team hopes to launch the flight between March 31 and May 15, before the weather gets too hot. "The Icarus part of the story is true," says Mark Drela, 28, the chief aerodynamic engineer. "Heat could kill us. It wouldn't melt the wings, but it could give the pilot cramps or sap his energy."

5/2/1988

Sports Illustrated Vault

“Winging Into History”  by Joan Ackermann – Blount and William Oscar Johnson

Excerpt:

 However the plane was structured, the flight would demand an enormous effort from the pedaler-pilot—an effort that one of the project members predicted would be comparable to running two marathons back to back. "This is very different from anything," said Tremml, one of the pilots on the project. "You have to put out a constant amount of power. The power you're putting out the first minute is the same as the middle minute and the last minute."

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The purpose of this awful six-hour ride, which each pilot suffered that week, was twofold: to test the athletes' endurance one month before the first possible flight from Crete and to test the special fluid-replacement drink that Nadel had developed along with Dr. James Whittam of the Shaklee Corporation, which hopes to market it. The drink would be essential, serving both as a fuel with a high carbohydrate content to supply energy and as a coolant to keep the pilot from dehydrating.

"An athlete might sweat up to 30 grams a minute to dissipate heat," said Ethan Nadel, whose beverage has been dubbed Ethan-all by his cohorts. "That equals three pounds of water per hour, or 18 pounds after six hours. You lose sodium when you sweat. That's why we have to keep supplying sodium."

"This stuff blows away other drinks," said Frank Scioscia, another pilot. "I've lost eight pounds in cycling competitions. After the six-hour test I didn't lose anything. I weighed exactly the same."

National Geographic   8/1988pp 190 – 199 by John Langsford

“Triumph of Daedalus”

Excerpt:

            To power the aircraft, we searched for the world’s best human engines.  Ethan R Nadel, professor of epidemiology and physiology at the Yale University School of Medicine, joined with Steve Bussolari to devise a series of tests to measure the pilots’ maximum mechanical power output and endurance, to screen pilot candidates for aerobic capacity, and to explore avenues for extending their endurance.                    

            Glenn Tremml and Lois McCallin, a triathlete from Boston, emerged from this program to set world distance records in 1987 for men and women in “Light Eagle”, the Daedalus prototype.

            Kanellos, cycling champion of Greece 14 times, stood out among the Greek applicants.   From hundreds of others, we selected Frank Scioscia, Greg Zack, and Erik Schmidt, all U.S. national-class cyclists, and retained Glenn.   The ability of these pilots to process oxygen -- twice that of most people -- is a gift of genes honed by years of aerobic exercise.   It was nothing for them to cycle 60 to 100 miles a day in training, much of it uphill.  Frank casually mentioned one evening in Crete that he had done 145 miles that day.

            We had earlier determined that the energy budget for the flight would be equivalent to pedaling a racing bike at 23 miles an hour for six hours.  Without glucose replacement this output would exhaust the body’s reserves in three hours.   Ethan, with the help of the Shaklee Corporation, developed an in-flight drink that replenishes fluids and salt and nearly doubles the amount of glucose delivered to the bloodstream by off-the-shelf drinks.   With “Ethan-ol,” as it was dubbed, the pilots’ glucose levels were sustained for six hours.

            Lean as greyhounds except for bulging thigh muscles, the pilots recycled food into energy at fantastic rates.   Onlookers were amazed as they consumed up to 7,000 calories a day.

MIT Technology Review10/1988p 24

“The Making of the Daedalus Legend” by John Langford

Excerpt:

Early in the project, we had thought that the pilots would be able to complete the flight without food.   But the more testing continued, the less this appeared to be the case.   In the spring of 1987, with support from Shaklee Corp., Ethan Nadel began to develop a drink that would both replenish the liquids and minerals sweated off by the pilots and deliver glucose quickly to their bloodstream.   He wanted to more than double the amount of energy content in drinks already on the market.   Although no one ever admired the taste of the new drink, dubbed “Ethan-All,” pilots noted a distinct increase in their energy after drinking it, and blood samples showed that glucose levels could be sustained for over six hours under flight conditions.