CAMARILLO, Calif. -- The men of Gossamer Albatross fame pedaled through smoggy Southern California skies Friday in the inaugural flight of the White Dwarf, the world's first ultralight airship.
The helium-filled, 50-foot-long and 27-foot-tall dirigible is the brainchild of the popular comic with one name, Gallagher, who cracked a breakaway bottle of champagne over his head before the White Dwarf's tethered official maiden flight.
'You can't break a bottle on a balloon,' he quipped before taking over the controls for a 15-minute flight. The $40,000 human-powered airship financed by Gallagher has a nylon skin covered by a coating of urethane.
The idea grew out of a blimp-shaped stage prop Gallagher asked Bill Watson, builder of the Gossamer Albatross, to make. The radio-controlled flying watermelon Gallagher incorporated in his night club act ignited his interest in airships.
Watson designed and built the White Dwarf. The project test pilot was Bryan Allen, who won international acclaim as the pilot of the first truly successful human-powered aircraft, the Gossamer Condor.
In 1979, Allen pedalled the Watson-built Gossamer Albatross across the English Channel to claim a $220,000 prize for long-distance, man-powered flight offered by British industrialist Henry Kramer.
'Anybody who sees it will want to fly it,' Allen said at the flight pad. 'I think this airship will impress a lot of people. There's never been anything like it.'
Human-powered airships achieved some popularity in Europe and the United States at the turn of the century but none was so light as the 150-pound White Dwarf.
The airship's power comes from a chain-driven 64-inch-long propeller. Because of its weight, it is the first airship to qualify under federal regulations as an ultralite air vehicle, said Watson.
A white dwarf is a mature star in an advanced stage of development that has a helium core.
