Henry Kremer and the Kremer Prizes
Thanks to the generosity of the late Mr Henry Kremer The Royal Aeronautical Society currently organises the following competitions:
The Kremer International Marathon Competition
Prize: £50,000 (Fifty Thousand Pounds Sterling)
The course for the international marathon competition is around two turning points which are not less than 4051 metres apart. The aircraft starts from rest flies two outer circuits, one figure of eight, then two more outer circuits. The distance including turns is thus approximately the distance of the Marathon course in athletic events. This distance must be flown in one hour or less. The aircraft must be in continuous flight, and must make a landing satisfactory to the observers. At certain points on each circuit there is a minimum height obligation. The entrant may select the location of the course, which must then be agreed by the official observers.
The Kremer International Sporting Aircraft Competition
Prize: £100,000 (One hundred thousand pounds sterling)
The purpose of this competition is to promote the production of a aeroplane suited to athletic competition. In particular it is necessary to specify and design an aircraft able to operate in normal weather conditions, as encountered in the United Kingdom. The prize of £100,000 will be awarded to the first entrant successfully demonstrating a human powered aircraft in accordance with the rules of the competition.
The Robert Graham Competition
Prize: £500 (Five Hundred Pounds Sterling)
The purpose of the competition is to foster knowledge in the art and science of human powered flight. The competition is open to undergraduates and other students of engineering, technology, human physiology and other relevant disciplines at universities, polytechnics, colleges of further education and sixth form colleges in the United Kingdom. Any project entered must form an integral part of a course of studies. The work can take the form of experimental research or engineering design and must have a clear application to human powered flight. Each sponsoring college may approve one entry in each discipline per year.
The Schools Competition
The Royal Aeronautical Society Human Powered Flight Group is pleased to announce an exciting new opportunity for schools and other youth organisations.
Open to any Youth Group in the UK, this competition was launched in 2006. Youngsters have always shown their ability to pilot. Now here is encouragement for them to be involved in the creation of the machine. The conditions are far less stringent than for any previous competition. A cash prize and a trophy will be awarded annually for the flight of longest duration that year. Two ground-handlers are allowed to assist in the take-off. It can be done. The precedent for this is the Aslam HPA built by students of Dr Keith Sherwin in Singapore. Upper age limit is 18. The RAeS HPAG currently includes Dr Keith Sherwin, Dr Bill Brooks, Professor John Wimpenny, John McIntyre, Fred To, and Chris Roper, all of whom have designed HPA.
We are providing information and support to participating teams. HPA have been built with very modest equipment, and construction should be well within the scope of a school`s workshop. It is anticipated that flights could be performed on a typical school playing field, or similar open space. The rules also constrain that the plane must be deriggable suitable for transporting.
Applications for entry and details
The rules can be downloaded here: Download rules and information pack
Download Keith Sherwins Aslam paper here: Aslam
For further information please contact the Conference Office, Royal Aeronautical Society, 4 Hamilton Place, London W1V OBQ, Telephone +44 (0)20 7670 4345 Fax +44 (0)20 7670 4349
Henry Kremer
HENRY Kremer. like Leonardo da Vinci. believed that man should be able to fly using the power of his muscles. Although an ingenious inventor, such a feat was beyond him so he promoted the ancient dream by offering cash prizes and development grants for the first person to achieve it.
Henry Kremer was born was born in Dvinsk (now Dau gavpils) Latvia on May 8, 1907. His parents emigrated to England after World War I and Henry was educated in Britain and Switzerland, becoming a British citizen. His parents started a small plywood and chip-board fabrication business. Their son joined the firm in 1927 and proved to be brilliant at devising new materials and methods of making them. By the time World War II broke out, he held a number of patents, including those for the plywood process used to build the de Havilland Mosquito bomber. In 1941 he developed a process for making a plywood substitute from sawdust, wood shavings and resin. Structural moulded boards replaced natural timber, which was then unobtainable, and were used in the war effort and later commercially. This was the first product of its type in Britain and it grew into the chipboard industry. In 1953 he produced a process of making glass fibres which were chopped and assembled with adhesive and, when used with epoxy resin. formed strong structural material. This process, initially only for defence purposes, is now used commercially for most reinforced plastics work. Without the resin it is now well known as fibreglass insulation. Henry Kremer founded Microcell in 1951 and subsequently expanded it into the Laser group of companies. In 1954 In a patent, kept as secret for some years, Mr Kremer described the invention of coating short glass fibres with aluminium. This was entitled Rapid Blooming Window and replaced the original window of aluminium foil, being lighter, easier to deploy and staying in the air longer. Dispensers were developed by Microcell for use on the RAF V bombers. which threw out bundles of 2 inch lengths of the fibres. In 1959 Experiments were carried out on behalf of the Royal Aircraft Establishment on void free radomes to produce better performance for radars. The successful methods of manufacture were put into widespread use in industry. Since working with de Havilland, Kremer had maintained his interest in aviation, and he was also very interested in physical fitness. Both subjects were closely connected with Robert Graham's project to develop a human-powered aircraft, and from time to time Graham informed Kremer of the progress of the MAPAC and its successor committee of the Royal Aeronautical Society. One day in 1959, Kremer, Graham, H. G. Bennison, Fred East, and Air Commodore Bryan Hatfield stopped for lunch at the Cambridge Hotel in Camberley after touring one of Microcell's factories. The group was in a jovial mood because of a successful merger, and Graham spoke enthusiastically about human-powered flight. "Man could fly," he told the other men. "If only someone would put up a prize for it, say about five thousand pounds." "I'll put up five thousand pounds," Henry Kremer volunteered immediately. The astonished and delighted Graham turned to his companions and verified that they had heard Kremer's offer. Bennison confirmed it and offered to put a plaque on the lunch table if anything ever came of it. That was the beginning of the Kremer Prize. The prize was announced in November 1959, and a letter signed by Robert Graham in the Royal Aeronautical Society Journal for January 1960 stated that the award would be made for "The first successful flight of a British designed, built, and flown Man-Powered Aircraft, such flight to take place within the British Commonwealth, under conditions laid down by the Royal Aeronautical Society." Over the next 27 years Kremer's personal sponsorship led to the construction of many aircraft, short flights. completion of a figure-of-eight course and the spectacular Channel crossing in 1979. During that period his sponsorship amounted to more than £150,000. He realised that this was the first real step in human-powered flight and gave the Royal Aeronautical Society a further £100,000 prize money to encourage the design of more robust and practical aircraft. A speed competition was devised which became an outstanding success. with the fifth and final winner completing the 1,500 metre course at a speed of 44kph. There is over £150,000 still to be won in Kremer prizes. In 1969 Mr Kremer conducted experiments on electro viscous fluids, in conjunction with defence departments and Sheffield University. such fluids are now in wide use in industry for controlling power eg in clutches. In 1974 Mr Kremer took over the concept of the Wheelbarrow for approaching suspected bomb situations in Northern Ireland and produced the first useable version. Production was assigned to another company. Although his man-powered flight competition attracted widespread interest and publicity.
Kremer was a self-effacing man who avoided the limelight. It is doubtful that human powered flight would have been achieved and developed to the extent it has been without the encouragement and support of Henry Kremer. The Royal Aeronautical Society honoured him with Companionship in 1975. and in 1988 the Federation Atronautique Internationale presented him with its highest award. the Gold Air Medal. and later made him a Companion of Honour of the FAI.
Henry Kremer died at his home in Israel on April 8 1992 aged 84. He was survived his wife Norah, two sons and two daughters.
Born 8th May1907, died 8th April 1992.
Companion of the RAeS 1975
The Paul Tissandier Diploma 1978
The FAI Gold Air Medal 1987
This was compiled from the following sources: 1. Notes and citations held at the RAeS library. 2. An obituary written by Frank Low (Chairman of the HPAG). 3.The Gossamer Odyssey by Morton Grosser.
