Atlas: A Human-Powered Helicopter

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1156290643/atlas-a-human-powered-helicopter-for-a-historical

by yurisagalov • 14 years ago

119 43 14 years ago

kickstarter.com

Tichy2• 14 years ago

Why aim so low? I say kickstart a perpetuum mobile!

crazy_eye• 14 years ago

Neat, but this idea can only go so far on this planet (gravity, etc). Maybe on our next planet...

yurisagalov• 14 years ago

This project is from the same team that recently set the Guinness World Record by building a Human Powered Ornithopter (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E77j1imdhQ)

Tichy2• 14 years ago

That video seems weird: since apparently they launched the ornithopter with some machine, how is it even clear that it stayed afloat by using human power after launch? Where is the difference to a glider?

pygy_3• 14 years ago

> Where is the difference to a glider?

It sustained altitude and speed for a while (short of 20 seconds).

See this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E77j1imdhQ

rorrr• 14 years ago

That's not human powered, they accelerated it with a car. It's like saying hang-gliding is human-powered.

sopooneo• 14 years ago

By that reasoning, Yeager's X-1 was not rocket powered since it was launched from the bomb-bay of a flying B-29 prop plane.

And a hang glider isn't powered at all. It has no thrust.

adamgravitis• 14 years ago

Both Todd and Cam are brilliant aero engineers. While not a fait accompli, this certainly isn't their first negotiation with nature...

joachimd2• 14 years ago

Wow competition is heating up as there is already a well established group called Upturn going after the prize. They also have a Kickstarter campaign and are much further along with a working model that is now getting tuned. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1594333219/make-aviation...

starpilot• 14 years ago

Wow. I spent most of my undergrad extracurricular effort working on my university's HPH team. Incredibly difficult challenges in aerodynamics and structures. The goal is to go for a whole minute and reach 3 m altitude. In the few decades the prize has been offered, the record has been seconds and centimeters high.

option_greek• 14 years ago

I can understand the altitude limitation but whats limiting hover time.. losing balance ?

carlhu• 14 years ago

Insufficient sustainable power output.

archangel_one• 14 years ago

Presumably the pilot must be pedalling pretty hard to get this thing in the air, so they're not going to be able to keep that up forever.

smackfu• 14 years ago

It may help to see a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q70tM5sDQhc

They are right on the edge of flight/no flight. The driver is pedalling flat out and it's not flying. Then it hovers for a few seconds, then it goes back to on the ground.

Unoeufisenough• 14 years ago

Is storing energy against the rules? for example pedaling for an hour or two to store up say mechanical energy in a flywheel, spring tension, hydraulic pressure or other means then just put the rotors in gear to lift off?

heretohelp• 14 years ago

I have to assume so. Leverage is presumably allowable though.

Once you're in the business of storing mechanical energy, you haven't solved the problem of sustained human-powered flight and you're really just a technology epoch away from using a motor and a capacitor.

alagu2• 14 years ago

On some guesses of how future will be, I definitely see jetsons-type single/two person local commute micro-aircrafts.

Curious, who else is working on micro-aircrafts with engines for local commute?

netrus• 14 years ago

I always fail to see the market there. Why is it superior to the car, considering the higher costs for fuel, that will be unavoidable?

fredsters_s• 14 years ago

  "unavoidable"

:-|

rprospero• 14 years ago

It depends where you live. I regularly make a 35 mile drive to a place that's only twenty miles away. A vehicle that used 75% more fuel per mile than my car could let me make the same trip in almost half the time for the same amount of fuel.

alagu2• 14 years ago

Market is where land commute takes time. Eg., in Bay area, there are lot of people who commute from South Bay to San Francisco. Slow traffic is common during peak hours and it is frustrating. I see this area as one of the best places to try local air-commute.

It would add the third dimension to the commute space. Like the fast-lanes in freeways, lanes could be formed by altitude.

K2h• 14 years ago

More pictures of the streamlined high-speed recumbent bicycles at http://www.flickr.com/photos/adamince/page2/

suhastech• 14 years ago

Interesting. The first project they seem to have funded on Kickstarter.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1594333219/make-aviation...

joachimd2• 14 years ago

That is a different project, different set of people.

reledi• 14 years ago

Cameron and Todd backed the Upturn project on Kickstarter, they didn't create it. NTS Works (the organization behind Upturn) is in competition with AeroVelo (the organization behind Atlas).

jonah• 14 years ago

This guy seems closer to the win. He's been iterating on this thing for years and is the current record holder. He also founded and sold Zero Motorcycles.

obilgic• 14 years ago

they wont get funded, just because their video does not really compete with other's

SagelyGuru3• 14 years ago

I suggest at least eight strong men in a row. You get aerodynamic and scaling benefits, just like with rowing boats.

xyzzyz• 14 years ago

Air vehicles are light, men are heavy.

SagelyGuru3• 14 years ago

It seems a bit pointless when it would be relatively easy with a dirigible (i.e. add a bag of hydrogen or helium). On a windless day, your pedalling should propel you quite a distance anywhere you want to go. Problem solved, with technology that is at least hundred years old.

WestCoastJustin• 14 years ago

The goal is to win the American Helicopter Society (AHS) prize of 250k. The regulations (http://www.vtol.org/awards-and-contests/human-powered-helico...) specifically outlaw your suggestion -- although it was a good one ;)

4.1.1 The machine shall be a heavier-than-air machine. The use of lighter-than-air gases shall be prohibited.

Someone• 14 years ago

Thanks for the link. It appears that you are allowed to drop the ground level from below the helicopter :-)

One thing that is slightly more in the spirit of the contest is to have rotors tht do not provide lift at all and hence have low drag, build up lots of potential energy, and then adjust the angle of attack to get lift. Storing potential energy to get a 30 second launch and subsequent 30 second drop will be 'challenging', though.

I guess that both will be covered by "3.2 For any and all questions regarding acceptance of entries, eligibility of an entrant, pilot, crew or aircraft under the regulations, or any other matter relating to the AHS prize, the decision of the AHS is final."

SagelyGuru3• 14 years ago

OK, thanks. So how about I use strong carbon fibre shell with air pumped out. There is no lighter than air gas involved and the whole machine can be (just slightly) heavier-than-air. I bet they would outlaw that too, under the 'catch all' rule mentioned below. Nothing but extremely hard work will do ;)

grannyg00se2• 14 years ago

It looks like the state of the art right now gives us absolutely huge devices that barely even make it off the ground. Does anybody have any confidence that a human powered helicopter could ever be practical for real transport? Unless we humans somehow manage to multiply our sustained power output by several times, I don't see this happening.

Atlas: A Human-Powered Helicopter

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