Musculair

Musculair 1 and Musculair 2 are two human-powered aircraft designed and built by German academic and engineer Günther Rochelt.

Musculair 1
Rochelt designed Musculair 1 and completed building it in 1984. His son, Holger, won a Kremer prize in the same year for his flight over a 1500 m triangular course, improving the record to 4 minutes and 25 seconds. In the same year, he set a world speed record at 35.7 km/h, receiving a second Kremer prize. Later that year, Holger and his sister Katrin, at that time still a child, became the first passengers in a human-powered aircraft.
 * Length: 7.20 m
 * Wingspan: 22.00 m
 * Wing area: 16.50 m2
 * Glide ratio: 1:38
 * Height: 2.20 m
 * Mass of the aircraft: 28 kg
 * Propeller diameter: 2.72 m
 * Required minimum power: 200 watts
 * Required performance : 280 watts

Musculair 2
Günther designed Musculair 2, and Holger slimmed down to just 41 kg to reduce the total mass of craft and human, leading to him setting a new Fédération Aéronautique Internationale world record for a human-powered aircraft at 44.32 km/h on 2 October 1985. The record, which still stands as of 2023, was set over a circuit at the Sonderlandeplatz Oberschleißheim airfield, near Munich.


 * Length: 6.00 m
 * Wingspan: 19.50 m
 * Wing area: 11.70 m2
 * Glide ratio: 1:37
 * Height: 1.50 m
 * Mass of the plane: 25 kg
 * Propeller diameter: 2.68 m

Aircraft on display
Today, Musculair I is on display at the main Deutsches Museum, Munich. Musculair 2 is on display at the specialist Deutsches Museum Flugwerft Schleissheim in Oberschleißheim.