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Related: About this forumVideo: Maryland Student Hovers 8 Feet High in Human-Powered Helicopter, Smashing Previous Records
By Rebecca Boyle Posted 08.30.2012 at 5:38 pm
Records are made to be broken, and a bunch of students at the University of Maryland are smashing the ones they just set earlier this summer. They're so close to winning the crazy-hard American Helicopter Society's Igor I. Sikorsky Human-Powered Helicopter competition watch an amazing eight-foot flight past the jump.
Henry Enerson, a freshman at UMD, is one of a handful of pilots taking turns furiously pedaling in the cockpit of the Gamera II, a human-powered quadcopter. The team has already met one major requirement of the Sikorsky Prize this week, hovering for 65 seconds. Now if they can hit one minute and get a little higher than 8 feet -- to exactly 3 meters, or 9.8 feet -- they'll win the $250,000 32-year-old prize.
The team has been testing all week but had to take a break for a few hours today so the students could go to class. We're following their progress and we'll update here if they set any further records -- meanwhile, watch Henry's flight below.
CJCRANE
(18,184 posts)MAD Dave
(204 posts)Awesome! Congrats to the team
ret5hd
(20,489 posts)Either that, or give that boy some steroids! Let's win that prize!
Heather MC
(8,084 posts)Go Turtles!!!
Schema Thing
(10,283 posts)no seriously, dope.
formercia
(18,479 posts)I don't understand your comment
petronius
(26,602 posts)valid reaction to something like this...
Hope they make it!
formercia
(18,479 posts)My Father didn't understand me either.