Human Power's First
Issue
by Chester R. Kyle
The
first issue of Human Power was printed in 1977 and, unlike many amateur
first issues, it was spectacular. It was put together by a professional
graphic artist, Dick Hargraves, in slick magazine format, with a
dramatic photo of the winner of the 1977 HP Speed Championships spread
clear across the front and back covers. The vehicle was Paul Van
Valkenburgh's Aeroshell, a prone hand-and-foot-powered four-wheeled
streamliner. You can just make out USA champion cyclist Paul Therrio's
head leading the way under the clear plastic fairing.
The first issue contained an article by Dr. Paul MacCready, who had just
won the Kremer Prize for human-powered aircraft, and another by engineer
Randy Danta on the design of human-powered boats. It also included the
results of the first three International Human-Powered Speed
Championships in 1975, 1976 and 1977 with photos of all of the 1977
entries.
The officers and board of directors of the IHPVA were listed on page 11
along with their biographical data. Included were such notables as:
Allan Abbott, holder of the World Motor-Paced speed record of 140.5 mph;
Tullio Campagnolo, owner and president of Campagnolo - then the largest
racing-component manufacturer in the World; Sir Hubert Opperman, O.B.E.
Australian Member of Parliament and renowned holder of numerous
long-distance cycling records (example, Lands End, England, to John
O'Groats, Scotland, in 63 hours 22 minutes in 1929); Eddy Merckx of
Belguim, many time winner of the Tour de France; and of course there
were famous authors Frank Whitt and David Gordon Wilson, creators of the
best-selling cycling book, Bicycling Science. I have letters of
acceptance from them in my files. I was the president that year and my
co-founder of the IHPVA, Jack Lambie, was vice president of air. Jack
was responsible for the resurgence of hang gliding as a sport in the
USA, when he built and flew the hang glider "Hang Loose" in
the early 1970s. He also built a streamlined bicycle in 1973 at the same
time I built the Teledyne Titan. These were the first two streamlined
HPVs built in North America.
Jack and I had started the Human-Powered Speed Championships in 1975 and
we were forced to organize the IHPVA in 1976 due to an annoying quirk of
the Guinness Book of World Records. Guinness would not recognize our
human-powered speed records because they were not sanctioned by an
official organization. So we formed one, the IHPVA, and later, in 1979
and 1980, Guinness actually printed our records. The IHPVA is still
going, and Human Power is still published - a modern miracle considering
the odds against.
In 1977, Dick Hargraves suggested and volunteered to put out the
publication called Human Power. Dick was a talented jazz pianist, as
well as a model-airplane builder - a thread that runs through the IHPVA:
Paul MacCready, Bill Watson, Alec Brooks and many other first members of
the IHPVA were amateur model builders. In 1976, Dick also designed and
printed our first race poster. Common to most publishers, Hargraves
found it was a tremendous task to put out an issue by himself, so he
enlisted the help of engineer and automotive author Paul Van Valkenburgh
and many others in publishing Human Power for the next several years.
Hargrave remained as editor until the end of 1983, when Dave Wilson took
over as editor. Although the slick magazine format disappeared after the
first issue, Hargrave's logo and layout remained until 1991, when Dave
transformed Human Power into the attractive technical journal with
colored cover that exists today.
The first issue of Human Power was a remarkable introduction to a
journal that has printed almost 200 technical articles to date, many
authored by the world's leaders in the human-power movement. The authors
have designed and built some of the world's most successful, original
and creative human-powered vehicles, land, water and aircraft, and have
written about it in Human Power. This collection, which contains all of
the issues published over 26 years, will remain as an essential
reference to those who really want to know what makes human-powered
vehicles work.
May 14, 2004
