OUR HISTORY

As the first Human Powered Aircraft was flown in Southampton over 50 years ago, the city has strong roots in the design and creation of such aircraft. It was therefore decided in 2012 that another team of engineers should create another Human Powered Aircraft. This project progressed over a series of years as a final year group design project and was featured on an episode of ‘Speed with Guy Martin’.
The group design projects concluded in 2016 and moved the project to become a university society. The society started off small but grew significantly in 2017 with a new focus on repairing the plane, and competing with it in the Icarus cup.
The society not only works on developing the current plane (now known as Lazarus), but is also working on future projects that will enable SUHPA to become a leader in the field of Human Powered Aircraft. As of summer 2018, the society will be working with high-level organisations to create the world’s first ever Human Powered Seaplane (known as Hydra). The President and Vice-President of the society are also currently writing a paper nicknamed ‘Project Ovid’ which will hopefully be published by 2019, and describes how others can create their own Human Powered Aircraft Society! The society is working very hard, and welcome new members of any background, engineering or otherwise.