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Human Powered Helicopter Aims To Break Records

Posted by samzenpus on from the icarus-airlines dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A team of 50 from the University of Maryland has developed a human-powered helicopter, 'The Gamera,' which took two years to complete. The size of the helicopter is one third of a football field. The helicopter is made from light materials such as balsa, mylar, carbon fiber and foam and weighs about 210 pounds. The team aims to have it hover at least 3 meters off the ground."

3 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. Misleading summary by Pheran · · Score: 4, Informative

    The article summary is quite misleading given that the 210-pound figure includes the weight of the pilot.

    1. Re:Misleading summary by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 4, Funny

      So that's the fueled weight.

      --
      No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
  2. Re:Stored energy by tlhIngan · · Score: 4, Informative

    How do you make one that is not influenced by ground effect?

    Easy, fly higher.

    Ground effect only happens when you're close to the ground. A rule of thumb is that it's effect is negligble after you reach a height equal to half the wingspan.

    So a rotor blade (or wing) of 3m length (6m rotor disc/wingspan), once above 3m in height, would have to be flying out of ground effect.

    And yes, ground effect is a big deal - it lowers the amount of lift you actually need by quite a bit. Student pilots find this out on landing when all of a sudden the airplane floats down the runway. Experienced pilots find it when their plane seems to take off, but only bobs above the ground without really gaining altitude.