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Human Powered Helicopter
marcopo writes "In response to a 24 year old prize challenge from the American Helicopter Society, a number of engineering students at the University of British Columbia have designed a human powered helicopter. The prize requirements are 3 minutes flight at 3 meters, with only human power, and the team, led by UBC's Mike Georgallis, plans a test flight next Tuesday.
The Vancouver Sun also has the
story."
What is this? The linked page had a section CLEARLY TITLED "Project Cost"? Oh but no one would read that...
Well it says about $29000 Canadian.
It's actually over $70k unless you have some hookups at Boeing to give you the composite material for free...
Those wings have a huge volume, you should be able to get pretty good lift if you filled them with helium. Of course I don't know what the rules would say.
From the rules:
4.1.1 The machine shall be a heavier-than-air machine. The use of lighter-than- air gases shall be prohibited.
Can they use a battery? As in charge the battery using human power and then run the motor off the battery power???
From the rules:
4.1.4 No devices for storing energy either for takeoff or for use in flight shall be permitted. Rotating aerodynamic components, such as rotor blades, used for lift and/or control are exempt from consideration as energy storing devices.,
The only reason you might get more power upright than recumbent is if you depend on gravity to force your body down so your legs have something (your weight) to react against.
However, to generate 500 watts of power you need more than just your weight to push against. The pilot will likely be strapped into place, or at least have some sort of harness or surface to push their shoulders against, and someplace to put their hands.
It's also possible, though not likely, that in a recumbent position the pilot could exert more energy with abdominal and arm muscles, since the torso would not necessarily be fixed on a seat.
Imagine 5 100W light bulbs. Now imagine converting that light and heat into enough physical force to lift 200 pounds of stuff off the ground. Very interesting challenge.
-Adam
Lets put you in a chair and drop you straight down, see how well you fare.
If the occupant instantly lost absolutely all lift, they'd hit the ground at about 27 km/h - fairly hard, but certainly not fatal or serious on most surfaces (I'd presume they'd do this over grass or the like). Of course in reality it's highly unlikely that absolutely all lift would disappear (the thing would have to get itself up to 3 meters - if it lost lift, it'd more likely be a gradual reduction), so the much more likely scenario is a signficantly slower impact. Maybe someone will twist an ankle or pull a joint, but it's hardly life threatening.
Example: http://www.polarusa.com/consumer/powerkit/Article
where does everyone come up with this 3 minute hover stuff?
if you had read the rules of the contest, or the story from the paper (which i read IN the paper), you dorks would have seen its a 1 minute hover requirement, not 3.
why bother even putting links to the info if no one is going to read it?
oh, i forgot, i am new here, and this is slashdot. idiots.
Here's a link to a SAMPE journal paper describing the project in details.