A team from the University of Toronto has won $250,000 for the first successful launch of a human-powered aircraft named “Atlas”.
The American Helicopter Society has officially declared AeroVelo winner of the Igor I. Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter Competition. After a thorough and rigorous independent analysis of the flight data of June 13th 2013 12:43 EDT, the AHS Human-Powered Helicopter Committee concluded that indeed Atlas’ epic flight 1) exceeded 60 seconds duration, 2) exceeded 3m in height, and 3) remained within a 10m x 10m box.
The incredible flight of Atlas was 64.11 seconds in duration (World Record for “Duration on Hover”), reached a 3.3m peak altitude, and drifted a maximum of 9.8m.
The American Helicopter Society competition was initially opened in 1980, and over the course of the 33 years that followed, dozens of teams from around the world pushed the limits of existing technology in pursuit of this once-thought-to-be impossible goal. This video is a compilation of footage from the record flight, as well as previous test flights.
The Ornithopter is worth checking out, too …
The Snowbird Human-Powered Ornithopter was designed and constructed by members of the AeroVelo team while studying at the University of Toronto. On August 2nd, 2010 it sustained both altitude and airspeed for 19.3 seconds, becoming the world’s first successful human-powered ornithopter.
See also …
www.aerovelo.com
See more videos …
www.youtube.com/channel/UCaaBYl_LnxAecUOgfVTQHvg