At the same time that Cameron was visiting the team at the University of Maryland, I was on the other side of the world standing in awe of the Yuri I at the Kakamigahara Aerospace Museum in Japan. I happened to be in Asia for a friend’s wedding and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see this historical human-powered helicopter. The Yuri I was built by Prof. Akira Naito and the Nihon Aero Student Group, as the 5th helicopter in their quest for human-powered flight. In 1988, using mostly bamboo construction, the Yuri set a 19.46 second endurance record that stood untouched until the University of Marylands flights with Gamera II in 2012. The Yuri’s highly innovative quad-copter design was a breakthrough that made clear the possibility of stable and efficient flight.
Given our current hiatus in testing as we await word from the AHS, invited us to come watch their latest and tentatively last round of flight testing this week. We jumped at the chance, eager to learn from the most rigorous and research-intensive team to ever attack the human-powered helicopter challenge. I was lucky enough to be there for Tuesday evening and most of Wednesday, for some of the most exciting flights to-date.
At AeroVelo, we know that “some people are never satisfied with a good idea, and work day and night until they end up in a place no one can ever dream of”. Apparently, Honda does too, as they claim in their 2013 Honda Civic Hybrid commercial, aired nationally in the United States, featuring our very own Snowbird, the Human-Powered Ornithopter.
On April 5, 2013, Todd and Cameron presented a TEDx Talk at Western University. Titled “Ingredients for Innovation”, the pair spread their ideas about creative thinking and innovation, and shared their experiences with achieving the impossible – in particular, sustaining flight and breaking land speed records by human power (equivalent to a power of a cordless drill). Click on the image below to view the video.
At 12:43 on Thursday, June 13th, Atlas and its human engine rose to an altitude of roughly 3.3 metres, maintained flight for approximately 65 seconds and drifted no more than 10 metres.
After a series of repairs and a few important improvements Atlas is once again ready for flight! We’ll be flight testing this week from Sunday, June 9th, to Thursday, June13th, continuing in our attempt at the AHS Sikorsky Prize.
With the start of a new summer we’d like to welcome the new crop of students to AeroVelo! You’ve come on board at an exciting time, in the middle of a heated race for one of the biggest prizes in aviation history.
The last month has been an extraordinarily busy time as we gathered up the pieces from a major crash and prepared for our next flight test. On March 15th Atlas climbed to a height of roughly 3 metres coming within inches of achieving the altitude requirement for the AHS Sikorsky Prize. Within seconds, however, one of the rotors plummeted quickly, collapsing the truss in mid air. Much of the helicopter was still intact, but 4 breaks in the rotors spars, dozens of broken ribs and over 100 failure points in the truss would take and entire month to repair. Incredibly, we were able to complete the repairs with no more than 900 grams of carbon fibre and epoxy.
Tomorrow we’ll be making another attempt at the AHS Sikorsky Prize. This last week we installed small aluminum inserts to fix the stripping problem we had last week, and we’ve adjusted all structural lines to their final positions. We’re confident, collected and ready. Wish us luck!
We know we’re close, and we know the helicopter/pilot is capable, but to clinch this prize absolutely everything has to go right. Unfortunately, yesterday we saw some very strange behaviour in one of the rotors and spent several flights trying to chase down the problem. We ended up figuring out that it was a stripped screw that was allowing play in the rotor, but our time constraints on the field are very tight and by that time it was too late.
After two weeks of video analysis, minor modifications and weight saving measures, we’re preparing for another AHS Sikorsky Prize Attempt this Friday, March 8th. Since last time out we’ve managed to cut off an impressive 4.2 pounds, which, in concert with a few other modifications should reduce the low-altitude power by about 40 Watts. In addition we’ve made modifications to the configuration of the bracing wires that should stiffen up the structure and allow us to input more power without throwing the blades out of balance.
We would like to congratulate Le Projet Pégase (Pegasus) on the first flight of their human-powered aircraft on November 28th, 2012. Footage of their construction and flight has just been released on CBC Radio-Canada, and is available (in French) here. The project is featured 30 minutes in.
Last Friday was an incredible day of flight testing: the rotors were balanced and trimmed with very few adjustments and controls were responsive and effective! We had to pack up early, unfortunately, because the field was booked at 3pm. While loading the rotors back into the truck the wind picked up, changed direction and absolutely tore apart one of the rotors. Of course this was heart-breaking, but after some smart planning things are surprising a lot easier to fix than they seem.
