E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Earl Zubkoff, Essential Eye Photographics
University of Maryland biology student sits in the cockpit of a human-powered helicopter called Gamera.
Judy Wexler pedaled furiously and, for a few fleeting seconds, achieved what no other human has officially done before — she lifted a human-powered helicopter off the ground.
The flight is still awaiting confirmation from the National Aeronautics Association, but from the perspective of University of Maryland students working on the project, and a video of the attempt, the aircraft appears to have achieved liftoff of 3 to 5 inches, with a hover time of 4 seconds.
An announcement from the aeronautics association is pending.
The X-shaped helicopter, called Gamera, has 42-foot diameter rotors at each end of 60-foot long crossbars. A pilot's module is suspended from the middle, where Wexler, a biology student, sat and pedaled with feet and hands. Pilot included, the contraption weighs just over 200 pounds.
The liftoff flight is a milestone on a path winning the $250,000 Sikorsky Prize, an X-prize like contest for human-powered helicopters. Winning the prize requires keeping the helicopter aloft for at least 60 seconds and reaching a height of 10 feet.
Final Gamera Test Flight from May 12, 2011 at the Comcast Center, University of Maryland, College Park.
To see the feat for yourself, check out the video above. The flight comes at about 3 minutes.
An ecstatic Brandon Bush, a graduate student in the university's school of engineering and project team member, says they'll review the tape but, "it is definitely a world record for us, first woman in a human-powered helicopter, maybe even a time record."
John Roach is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by hitting the "like" button on the Cosmic Log Facebook page or following msnbc.com's science editor, Alan Boyle, on Twitter (@b0yle).
Leave a Comment:
that was it? i get better air jumping straight up. or ever farting.....
If you can sustain a hover for four seconds on just gas release, Guinness might be interested- even if they have to wear oxygen to record the event. In fact, DARPA might want to study it.
This is an amazing feat. Aeronautical engineers have been trying human-powered flight for over 100 years. And it took U.S. students to accomplish the job.
Not to be taken lightly. It is amazing!
Well that is because you are a dumb ass and don't understand the importance of it.
Way to go, University of Michigan and Judy Wexler.
(psst - Rogers, R.W. - as much as I like seeing the news from the University of Michigan, this story and Ms. Wexler are from the U of Maryland.)
yes it is Congrats to them, keep it Up...in more ways then one.
Not sure the importance of this event, but it certainly is an accomplishment. That girl has an excellent power to weight ration. I do however wonder if they will get better results from somebody a little heavier, but more powerful. I'd like to see a professional cyclist like Lance Armstrong do it. Not sure if it can make it into the record books if he is doping at the time or not though. So maybe it would be better to get another person of his caliber. Not to take anything away from the athlete who powered that thing. She would certainly leave me in the dust in a cycling tour.
I know she's described as a "biology student" but studying biology doesn't give a person thighs like that, I'd say she has some extracurricular activities that make her a prime candidate for this task.
Even if it does stay up 60 seconds one day let's see how it does outside in the wind where real helicopters fly.
This isn't exactly being built for the commercial market; it's research. You may not know that none other than Thomas Edison once predicted that they'd never build a car that could go uphill.
Was that the Rolls Canardly? You know: rolls down one hill, but can 'ardly get up the next? Wish I could remember which comedian came up with that one. How many inventions were waved off as having no practical application, and how much research was ignored for the same reason? You could fly the Wright brothers' flights at Kittyhawk inside of a C-5!
Terry H-1988645- I like that joke too. I don't remember the man nor the year but once upon a time the head of the US Patent Office supposedly resigned his job due to the belief that, "everything that's going to be invented has been invented". That one wins the "Short-Sighted Man of the Year" award.
Yeah, I remember reading that. If only he could see the world of today. I'd love to see what might be invented in the next century or so. I have a feeling that Star Trek might turn out to be conservative.
We can't keep a multi-million $ chopper up (Pakistan) so what's the point?
Bubba, what - afraid of a little lernin?
This is a really cool accomplishment! So what if it isn't hovering a hundred feet above the ground? A couple inches is a start! Congratulations to the students who worked on this from the University of Maryland! Great work!
I want one!
The Wright brothers' first flight wasn't that impressive, either.
Exactly commonsense... What some people don't know is that the Wright Bros' flight was shorter than the length of a 747. I think they've improved on that just a little.
Good stuff.
Seems like larger gears on the pedals would go a long way toward helping. She looked like she was putting an awful lot of effort into pedaling fast, but maybe a large gear wouldn't get it up to speed quick enough.
And a couple of inches is probably about all she or others are going to get. She's rising on "ground effect". This is the appreciated phenomenon aircraft pilots use to gently touch down under less than ideal landings, BUT you have to be very near the ground to benefit from the cushion. It's not really flying.
Jack, wing in ground effect is possible at a height of roughly half the wing spread of a fixed wing aircraft or in this case the length of the rotor blade, so they could easily get up to the 10 ft required to win the prize on the effect alone.
StMiller - rediculous. Read Kermode. Only on descent where she had airspeed and was already flying with momentum. Otherwise she is doomed to failure. You watch. "Easily" get up to 10 ft alt?? Ha. If she could have, she WOULD HAVE.
Jack -"If she could have, she WOULD HAVE." No Jack she wouldn't have. This was already scheduled as just a 'lift-off' event.
Those rotors seems to bend quite a bit. I know nothing about building a good rotor, but wouldn't it being a little more stiff make it more efficient? Of course, that assumes whatever weight gained by stiffening it isn't countering any gains from it being stiffer. I believe the design will improve. Hopefully she has enough power to do what is needed for 60 seconds.
Im with Montana.... great job team!!!
Human powered flight shows what can be done with limited force producing capabilities. Put a 1/2 hp motor on that craft and see what happens. It could possibly fly with the power that could be collected from solar cellls on its frame.
Hey, stop that, Shawn. You are supposed to be criticizing these people's hard work and determination like these other morons.
Yeah, no fooling, a solar powered motor might just be the trick.
I don't think they were trying to break any longevity records yet. They were proving that they could get it off the ground.
seems like employing a coil for pre-stored kinetic energy, coupled with solar power(?) as well an inertial wheel for gyroscopic stability & power band standardization, you could really get a functional transportation device going(?)
I'll bet all the buzz killers are probably 80 pounds overweight and haven't broken a sweat in 10 years other than when their air conditioner went out.
This was a pretty cool accomplishment - Both physically and technologically. thumbs up to them.
Pathetic....
Hardly, Steve. Of course, you are probably one of those people that would have said, "Pathetic..." in 1903 (the Wrights first flight), 1947 (Yeager's first controlled supersonic flight), 1961 (Gagarin's flight), and 1969 (the Apollo 11 lunar landing).
What we as a species is learning from experiments like this is priceless, and will help us in the future.
Now, back to your previously-scheduled whining...
the only pathetic thing is your lame op-ed.
These are good exercises for our kids. It builds teamwork, confedence and takes their minds off of all the corruption around them momentarily.
Way cool. Congratulations!
Cool, but they have a long way to go to get 10 feet and sixty seconds. But still amazing job!
I like the idea of putting the rotors really close to the ground - for an experimental flight, too dangerous for anything practical. I wonder if they could make it smaller by adding more gears, or if the weight of the extra gears would negate any power benefits.
Congratulations to the students. I bet I'll see one of these in the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog soon.
Considering what it takes to get a normal copter to fly, I'm really impressed.
It sounds just like the Flintstone's 'copter!
essie222- Was that the Flinstone Flyer or the Barney Copter?
nice ass
Congrats to the engineering team and that small, muscular girl. Human powered helos are emminently impractical, but the work on light-weight design can be used for more practical stuff. Keeping the blades low to use ground effect was cool too.
Use the ice skater's method of increased rpms[by pulling in arms] here...1/2 to 1 lb weights on each blade tip drawn in when max pedal rpm is reached will give a boost for that 10 ft alt requirement...monofilliment fish line,3 lb test to pull in weights that hit a cutter at the stop to drop the weights...timing critical of course...
Why not put a couple of helium pontoons on the thing to reduce the net weight to around 20 pounds ?
The specifications of the Sikorsky prize dictate a heavier-than-air machine. Lighter-than-air gases are prohibited.
Why wasn't there a camera at floor level at all the support posts to verify a lift? Heck, even four pen-sized lasers aimed at a wall so you can SEE the dots move up against a vertical reference point.
It looked more like the whole contraption BOUNCED due to the pilots gyrations, rather than LIFTING from displaced air. If she wore arm wings and springy shoes, would you say she "flew" just because her feet left the ground?
I say "nay" until she can sustain all posts off the ground and demonstrate continual LIFT until the pedaling stops and the vehicle settles back down. A bounce is not flight.
It needs more cowbell
lot of effort!
Nice work and a fun project for those students. It took quite a number of years to win the Kramer prize for first human powered aircraft so this is a normal evolution. I remember classmates of mine doing design presentations on the same thing ~1983 so people have been thinking about this for a long time.
I'm glad someone mentioned the ground effect on the rotors, too. Meeting the prize requirements will mean not relying on ground effect, which will make the final successful flight much more difficult, as I'm sure the students and their mentors fully recognize.
That makes me wonder why they even went down the ground-effect road at all, then.
What I want to know is how they get it in and out of the basketball arena, and how the college of engineering managed to get access to it in the first place. I can just see the dean of engineering pleading his case to the university president, and the president asking the athletic director for permission.
Blessed be those who brave the naysayers and in the process create a better world for mankind.
A better world? This is on par with running down a slope with a hang glider and a gentle glide (100 yrs ago), bicycles as the latest in private transportation(impracticle 100yers ago and still is today), electrical cars(impracticle 100 years ago and no improvement since), a bank of batteries for minimal electical pwoer source(another giant step backwards), windmills(well it is good to mill grain), "natural" food(there is a reason the green revolution needed fertilizer and insect control to improve yeild and quality).