Human Powered Helicopter

[Blue]

Engineers from the University of Toronto won the Sikorsky Prize yesterday (11 July 2013), building and successfully flying the AeroVelo Atlas, the first officially successful Human-Powered Helicopter. Other attempts have been made, but all predecessors fell short of the qualifications of the American Helicopter Society Igor Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter Competition criteria.

The Sikorsky Prize, set forth in 1980, states that the vehicle must carry one human being, fly to an altitude of 3 meters, be able to stay aloft for at least 60 seconds, and hover, staying within a 10 by 10 meter area. Atlas's pilot Dr. Todd Reichert managed to achieve this, flying to 3.3 meters at its pinnacle, and flying for 64.1 seconds. The aircraft was built by him and his 'teammate' Cameron Robertson. The aircraft only weighs 115 pounds, despite having four 20-meter rotors. It is largely constructed of carbon fibre, balsa wood and Styrofoam.

For the AeroVelo Team's achivement in aviation history, the AHS awarded them $250,000.

AeroVelo's previous work includes their 2010 invention, the world's first human-powered Ornithopter (flapping-wing aircraft) Snowbird.

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Edited July 12, 2013 by Blue
citations, additional info

[sytaline]

They look so weird! gonna watch the vid now.

[OtherDalfite]

This was really cool. Thanks for sharing! These guys deserve the prize. I'm sure this wasn't an easy task.

[miracmert]

Well, good thing it grabbed that much altitude. Congratz to them that they got the prize but what I think is the guy is working that hard to carry the weight of those struts. It's a good design for a start but it won't help anybody to actually use it for getting to somewhere.

[Echostatic]

It's a good design for a start but it won't help anybody to actually use it for getting to somewhere.

Hey, it's a start.

It looks surreal in flight... Blades spinning soooo slowly, yet floating there regardless.

[Sirrobert]

Meh I don't think this could be the future. If anything it reminds me of cars in the Flintstones

[rpayne88]

I doubt you know the answer, but what about the one made by engineering students at University of Maryland, College Park?