Canadian Team Claims $250,000 Prize for Human-Powered Helicopter

"With the application of passion and persistence and innovative,
creative thinking, you can really take on any challenge."
-- Cameron Robertson



Canadian Team Claims $250,000 Prize for Human-Powered Helicopter
http://www.wired.com/2013/07/human-powered-helicopter-prize/
BY JASON PAUR 07.11.13 | 2:14 PM

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEPryYsN1wY#t=32
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emK-qIbuJ-k
http://www.npr.org/2012/10/14/160670295/flight-club-human-powered-helicopter

The Canadian AeroVelo team has done what many thought impossible. The crew has
officially claimed the American Helicopter Society’s Igor I. Sikorsky
Human-Powered Helicopter Prize. And for keeping their lightweight contraption
afloat, the team was awarded $250,000 in Toronto for the flight it completed on
June 13. But meeting the criteria of a 33-year-old challenge takes time, so
they had to wait for verification from the Federation d’Aviation Intenationale
before the team could snag the prize.

Engineer Dr. Todd Reichert, along with Cameron Robertson, led the
Kickstarter-funded team largely comprised of students from the University of
Toronto. He was also the pilot and engine who successfully pedaled his way into
aviation history by climbing above three meters and flying for at least 60
seconds while staying within a 10-by-10 meter area. Reichert, a nationally
ranked speed skater in Canada, told us after so many flights and failures, the
prize-winning attempt almost didn’t happen.

On June 13, after earlier flights reaching between 2 and 2.5 meters, AeroVelo
only had enough time for one last attempt before they had to evacuate the
indoor soccer facility where they have been flying before evening practices
were set to start. And Reichert knew the biggest challenge would happen
mid-flight.

“For us, the dangerous part is coming down from altitude,” he says of the time
when the helicopter can get pulled into its own downwash. “Climbing is no
problem — it’s in the time period between 15 and 40 seconds that is really
tough.”

Once he managed to carefully descend from 3.3 meters, he had to keep pedaling
while controlling the drifting aircraft.

“You’re throwing everything you have into it,” he said. But because of the
control challenge, even after exceeding the 60-second requirement, there was no
time to think about the prize in the final few seconds. “There is really zero
thought of, ‘oh, I can do it.’ There is no feeling, only doing.”

The AHS first put up the challenge back in 1980 and since then more than 20
teams teams have designed and built human-powered helicopters in an attempt to
win what was initially a $10,000 prize. Though only a few of those actually
made it off the ground.

The competition heated up beginning in 2009 when Sikorsky Aircraft increased
the prize to $250,000. Since then the Canadian AeroVelo team and Team Gamera
from the University of Maryland have been in a tight battle to be the first to
fly a human-powered helicopter to fit the stringent requirements set by
Sikorsky.

“That is exactly why we raised the stakes,” Sikorsky’s Mark Miller said in a
statement. “To encourage creative thinkers to prove that what is considered
impossible is often proven to be possible.”

The AeroVelo Atlas uses a four-rotor system, with each blade spanning 67 feet.
The carbon tube frame weighs just 115 pounds. And unlike the University of
Maryland’s Gamera where the pilot/engine uses both legs and arms to power the
aircraft, the Atlas uses a modified bicycle frame suspended from the helicopter
by lightweight cord, with only the the pilot’s legs for power.

One of the challenges for both teams was finding an indoor space large enough
to fly. AeroVelo first flew in August of last year, and since then has had to
work around the schedule of the indoor soccer facility where they fly. With an
overall width of 190 feet, the Atlas needs a lot of space for its slow-turning
rotors.

The record-setting flight took place after a five-day testing sprint. Earlier
this year flights ended with damage to the Atlas. Both Atlas and Gamera are
extremely delicate and difficult to control, and for a while it seemed that the
teams were set on an on/off schedule, with one team flying while the other was
rebuilding.

Reichert says the prize is great, but it has always been about the challenge.

“It isn’t really about the prize,” he says. “It’s about satisfaction of
finishing something that you have set yourself to.”

The students at the University of Maryland sent their congratulations to their
competitors and fellow engineers at AeroVelo after learning about the team’s
success.

“No one knows better than we do the enormously difficult engineering and human
performance challenges that must be overcome in order to meet these flight
requirements,” the team said in a statement. “We salute this historic
accomplishment of the AeroVelo team and the intense dedication, innovation,
research and hard work we know it required.”

Reichert and AeroVelo co-founder Cameron Robertson are continuing to work on
new projects with students and the public.

“We want to use it as a platform to inspire people,” Reichert says, “more
specifically to look at doing more with less.”

After flying the slow-moving helicopter, next up is something with a bit more
speed. Reichert says they are working with students on a streamlined bicycle
that can achieve highway speeds. It’s likely to elicit scoffs of disbelief from
the cycling crowd, but a human-powered helicopter still sounds crazy, and he’s
already checked that off the list.
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Video Interview (with crash clips):
http://cnn-f.akamaihd.net/cnn/big/tech/2013/12/16/homan-powered-helicopter-org.cnn_16152110_,512x288_55,640x360_90,768x432_13 0,896x504_185,1280x720_350,0k.mp4.csmil/bitrate=1?v=3.1.1&p=aasp-3.1.1.75.16&fp=WIN%2016,0,0,235&r=EKNSK&g=YZRSNHPI SBXT

Article page:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/17/tech/innovation/ideas-aerovelo-human-power/

The pioneers behind a human-powered helicopter
Brandon Griggs, CNN
By Brandon Griggs, CNN
updated 8:46 AM EDT, Mon April 7, 2014 | Filed under: Innovations

Source: CNN
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Two young Canadian aerospace engineers push the boundaries of what's possible
The pair built a human-powered helicopter that claimed an elusive $250,000
prize

They also designed perhaps the first flapping-wing aircraft to sustain flight
The two spoke in October at the PopTech conference in Camden, Maine
Editor's note: On The Move explores the world of future personal transport
looking at the latest trends and tech innovations that shape global travel.
(CNN) -- It doesn't sound like it should be that hard.

The challenge: Design an aircraft that, powered only by a human, can reach 3
meters (9.84 feet) in altitude and hover for at least 60 seconds.

And yet that dare, first issued in 1980, stymied the world's best flight
engineers. Dozens of teams tried. Only a handful managed to get their "human
helicopter" off the ground. None won the elusive $250,000 Sikorsky Prize,
established by the American Helicopter Society for the first team to accomplish
the feat.

Until this year.
Thirty-three years after the Sikorsky Prize was established, a Canadian team
led by Todd Reichert and Cameron Robertson claimed it in June with a 64-second
flight in an indoor athletic arena outside Toronto. While Robertson tracked
their progress from the field below, Reichert powered their delicate aircraft
by pedaling a bicycle-like apparatus that twirled four enormous rotors.

11 Kickstarter projects that raised $1M or more
With the application of passion and persistence and innovative thinking, you
can take on any challenge.

Cameron Robertson
Their achievement was the second flight milestone for Reichert and Robertson,
who are becoming pioneers in the small but emerging field of human-powered
aviation. Three years ago the pair built perhaps the first flapping-wing
aircraft, powered by a human, to sustain flight.

All of which raises a logical question: Why do these things? What's the point
of designing aircraft that hardly anybody will ever fly?

"There's not ... practicality to a lot of what we do," admitted Robertson. "You
won't be flying your human-powered flapping-wing airplane or your human-powered
helicopter to work.

"But all of our projects challenge people's conventional way of thinking," he
told CNN at the recent PopTech conference in Camden, Maine, where he and
Reichert were cheered for their innovative approach to problem-solving.

"We really want people to understand that impossible is nothing," he added.
"And just because someone says you can't do something, doesn't mean you
(can't). With the application of passion and persistence and innovative,
creative thinking, you can really take on any challenge."

Photos: The Wright brothers take flight

Modern-day da Vincis
This flapping-wing ornithopter sustained flight for 19 seconds in a suburban
Toronto field.

This flapping-wing ornithopter sustained flight for 19 seconds in a suburban
Toronto field.

Leonardo da Vinci sketched plans for the first human-powered, flapping-wing
aircraft, known as an ornithopter, more than 500 years ago.

Since then, of course, a fixed-wing design has become the standard for
airplanes. But that hasn't stopped aerospace engineers from trying make a
variety of ornithopters fly.

Reichert and Robertson, graduates of the University of Toronto, launched their
ornithopter project in 2006 and began flight testing their aircraft, the
Snowbird, three years later. The plane had a wingspan of 105 feet -- comparable
to that of a Boeing 737 -- but weighed only 94 pounds.

A car towed the plane into the air to get it started, while Reichert sat in a
small cockpit and pumped a bar with his feet to operate a system that flapped
the wings up and down. With every failed test flight -- which broke more than a
few planes -- the two engineers learned a little more.

Basically, with these aircraft the mantra is, 'You don't fly any higher than
you're willing to fall.'

Todd Reichert
"Basically, with these aircraft, the mantra is, 'You don't fly any higher than
you're willing to fall.' And that tends to keep you fairly safe," Reichert
said. "We've had some crashes, but no real injuries."

Unusual energy sources of the future
Finally, in August 2010, in a suburban Toronto field, Snowbird was able to
sustain altitude and airspeed for 19.3 seconds while covering a distance of
about 475 feet. Reichert, Robertson and their team believe the brief flight set
a world record for an aircraft of its kind.

Then came the human-powered helicopter. The team built the aircraft, dubbed
Atlas, in three months, but it took another nine months of crash-filled flight
testing before they hit their target.

"Whenever we had a big crash, it was devastating. It took so much of our time
to piece Humpty Dumpty back together again. The whole helicopter is built sort
of like a house of cards -- if one thing goes, the entire thing falls apart,"
Robertson said. "But every time we picked ourselves back up (after a crash), we
would know a little bit more than last time."

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A land speed record
In 2012, Reichert and Robertson established AeroVelo, a company dedicated to
seeking sustainable enginering and design solutions to technological challenges
by using human-powered vehicles as a teaching platform.

Now the two young engineers have their sights on another big goal: Setting a
land speed record for the fastest human-powered bicycle.

Aerodynamic bicycles such as this AeroVelo model can hit speeds of more than 70
mph on flat ground.

Aerodynamic bicycles such as this AeroVelo model can hit speeds of more than 70
mph on flat ground.

In September, they went to Battle Mountain, Nevada, for the World Human-Powered
Speed Challenge, where teams compete on flat desert roads to race aerodynamic
bicycles as fast as cars. Pedaled by Reichert, their entry Bluenose -- a
recumbent bike encased in a sleek carbon-fiber shell -- reached speeds of 77
mph on flat ground.

"The fact that a human engine -- about the equivalent power of an electric
motor the size of your fist -- can power a bicycle at the same speed as that of
a car, which has a hundred times or more the power, is really the innovative
and inspiring thing that we think people should understand," Robertson said.

Malls of the future
Reichert and Robertson plan to return to Battle Mountain next year with a
faster bike and take aim at the world speed record of 83.8 mph, set this fall
by a Dutch team.

Unlike the ornithopter and the helicopter, a human-powered, high-speed bike
might actually have a future as a practical mode of personal transportation.
But even if it doesn't, Reichert and Robertson will keep pushing against the
boundaries of what humans can achieve.

The two young Canadians believe their biggest contribution to flight and speed
engineering may be to inspire others to tackle what seems insurmountable.

"It's very easy to say something's impossible," Reichert said. "It's much more
difficult to change your assumptions, and change your context, to make
something possible."
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http://www.aerovelo.com/projects/helicopter/intro/

Introduction
On June 13, 2013, AeroVelo’s Atlas human*-powered helicopter won the AHS Igor
I. Sikorsky Challenge and its $250,000 prize. During the record-*breaking 64
second flight, Atlas reached a height of 3.3 metres, meeting all requirements
of the 33 year old aviation challenge.

Photo taken during the award winning Sikorsky Prize Flight. Click the image to
see a video of the flight.

Photo taken during the award winning Sikorsky Prize Flight. Click the image to
see a video of the flight.

The American Helicopter Society’s Igor I. Sikorsky Human-Powered Helicopter
Competition represents the third largest monetary prize in aviation history.
The monumental feat requires a human to hover to an altitude of 3 metres under
his/her own power, and to remain aloft for at least 1 minute. The challenge is
test a of ingenuity, athleticism and determination.

The core members of the project team have been working together since 2006 on
the world record setting Snowbird Human-Powered Ornithopter as well as the
series of high-speed streamlined bicycles. Over the course of the various
projects we have built a wealth of experience in human performance, lightweight
composite construction, and advanced aerodynamic design. We firmly believe
that, with our collective expertise and experience, the AHS Sikorsky Prize is
well within our reach.

The team undertook initial feasibility and design studies for Atlas in January
of 2012. With intermediate development through the spring, in April Todd and
Cameron began work full-time on the design of the helicopter with special
attention to programming a full aero-structural optimizer for the helicopter
rotors.

The Atlas Human-Powered Helicopter at the Soccer Centre in Vaughan, Ontario,
August 2012 (Photo Credit AHS International / www.vtol.org)
The team’s initial ambitious goal was to capture the Sikorsky Prize by the end
of summer 2012. Design and construction continued through the summer at
breakneck pace, and the team was ready for flight testing by mid-August. Two
weeks of exciting flights and experimentation showed excellent progress, and
with a steady increase of Atlas’ flight envelope and capability the team had
achieved 15 second hovers by September. However, power testing and subsequent
analysis have shown that this helicopter is very capable of satisfying the
prize requirements. After rotor improvements Atlas captured the prize during a
flight on June 13, 2013.

In the same vein as the aircraft and bicycle projects, the AHS Sikorsky Prize
provides an inspirational narrative: the project pushes the boundaries of
possibility, showing that with creative solutions and innovative design we can
do far more with far less.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4wlC1Qex8A
Flight of the Gossamer Condor
The Gossamer Condor was the first human-powered aircraft capable of controlled
and sustained flight; as such, it won the Kremer prize in 1977. It was created
by Paul MacCready and Peter Lissaman of AeroVironment, Inc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp7yv67B5Sc

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gossamer_Condor
-------------------------------------

http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_maccready_flies_on_solar_wings
Paul MacCready — aircraft designer, environmentalist, and lifelong lover of
flight — TED talks about his long career.