Monday, June 17, 2013

Have Canadians Won the Man-Powered Helicopter Challenge?

The Canadian team, AeroVelo, may have won the prize for the first, man-powered helicopter flight.

Here's the tweet they sent yesterday:

"Hit 3.3 metres & 65 sec on our flight. Submitted the flight to the American Helicopter Society; waiting for validation before commenting."

The competition requires helicopter flight, solely human-powered, to a height greater than 3-metres for a duration of 60-seconds.  The helicopter has to remain within a small, 10-square metre area.

The winner takes the Sikorsky prize of $250,000.   Here's the AeroVelo Atlas.  The pilot is on the bicycle in the middle.  It's impossible to see the structures that connect him to and drive the four rotors.

 

4 comments:

  1. You can, indeed, see the structure if you choose 720p HD. That being said, I fail to see lift and the duration of the video is 43 seconds start to finish so it's difficult to conclude they they hit "height greater than 3-metres for a duration of 60-seconds." I hope my perceptions are wrong as it would be a great engineering achievement.

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  2. A much better view, especially in 1080 HD.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pJYISQ-EAIw

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  3. Sorry, CuJo, I didn't mean to suggest that video was of the record attempt. Yesterday's flight, from what I can find out, has gone to the competition panel for authentication. If they indeed win I think we'll see that video quite soon.

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  4. It is nothing like I expected.
    http://kw53.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/ff1.jpg

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