A man-powered helicopter: students' m almost
by Peter Zantingh
For 32 years there is a lot of money and fame ready for the first meeting all the conditions of the Sikorsky Prize criteria: a human-powered helicopter at least one minute in the air and gain thereby a height of three meters while achieving the thing within a certain area remains. Now students are on the point of all those conditions.
The price (currently $ 250,000, 191,000 euros) for three decades waiting for the first meeting all qualification requirements. The group of students from the U.S. state of Maryland began in late 2008 the project. A department director gathered a handful of them and they went to work. The first helicopter they built they called Gamera, a flying turtle from a Japanese film from 1969.
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This spring they had twenty failed attempts behind. And then they got Gamera finally in the air - four seconds. Since then, it gets better: there are now 75 students to take and succeed fly longer. In June, the construction remained gear 49.9 seconds in the air. And it worked another time to almost a meter from the ground.
It was late August. Gamera had become a successor, Gamera II. On four sides a rotor, a span of over 30 meters and 0.7 hp in the cockpit: a man. Freshman Henry Enerson.
Radio broadcasting NPR made an item about the efforts of the group flying students. The article can be read here, the short documentary is shown below. In it we see the above attempt, but a failed escape after the helicopter had to be repaired.
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And here's attempt Enerson in a separate video:
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Almost. Almost. The helicopter remains in flight within the defined area and almost meets the minimum flight time: 55 seconds, Enerson the ground. Another pilot, Colin, then get even 65 seconds. Only: the highest point that the two pick is 2.5 meters and the Sikorsky Prize requires a minimum height of 3 meters.
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