Name Bryan (hang | Role Hang glider | |
Movies The Flight of the Gossamer Condor | ||
Bryan Lewis Allen (born October 13, 1952) 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) and Gossamer Albatross (1979; the first human-powered aircraft to cross the English Channel). He later set world distance and duration records in a small pedal-powered blimp named "White Dwarf."
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.