A Canadian team has developed the first-ever helicopter powered only by a human that can reach three meters in altitude and hover for at least 60 seconds in the air.
The team led by Todd Reichert and Cameron Robertson, developed the human-powered helicopter with a 64-second flight in an indoor athletic arena outside Toronto. In June, the team demonstrated the first-ever sustained flight of the helicopter, claiming the elusive USD 250,000 Sikorsky Prize that was first set up in 1980.
While Robertson tracked the progress from the field below, Reichert powered the delicate aircraft by pedaling a bicycle-like apparatus that twirled four enormous rotors.
The achievement was the second flight milestone for Reichert and Robertson, the report said. The duo built perhaps the first flapping-wing aircraft, powered by a human, to sustain flight, three years ago.
"There's not ... practicality to a lot of what we do," Robertson said. "We really want people to understand that impossible is nothing," he said. A human-powered helicopter (HPH) is a helicopter powered solely by one or more persons carried on board. As in other human-powered aircraft, the power is usually generated by pedalling.
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