U-Md. students try to win $250,000 prize for hovering in a man-powered helicopter
By James Arkin, Published: February 28
In test flight after test flight, a group of students from the University of Maryland has labored for days to make an ungainly, 115-foot helicopter fly three meters off the ground and hover for 60 seconds, powered only by a pilot pedaling like crazy.
The reward: the $250,000 Sikorsky Prize. The engineering contest was dreamed up by the American Helicopter Society and Sikorsky Aircraft 33 long years ago after several successful man-powered airplane flights. But this man-powered helicopter challenge — which also involves hovering in a 10-meter square — has proven far more elusive, unintentionally ...
In 1989, Cal Poly students broke the flight record by hovering for 8.6 seconds. In 1994, a Japanese team had a flight of 19.46 seconds.
In 2008, graduate students from the U-Md. Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center decided to take up the challenge. In July 2011, the first Maryland chopper, the Gamera, flew for 11.4 seconds ...
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