Toronto-based engineering team AeroVelo yesterday received the AHS Igor I. Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter Challenge award and its $250,000 prize.
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. [UTX] congratulated AeroVelo Inc. and with the American Helicopter Society (AHS) presented the award at a special ceremony in Vaughan, Ontario, where the flight was conducted.
On June 13, Atlas, the human-powered helicopter, completed a record-breaking flight lasting 64 seconds and reaching a height of 3.3 meters.
Sikorsky won’t be leveraging what AeroVelo did, because “the vehicle itself is so very different than a practical helicopter–it has to fly and hover–while being powered by a human,” Matt Tarascio, chief engineer for Sikorsky Innovations, told Defense Daily. Atlas is not really applicable to the company’s rotorcraft.
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| Todd Reichert Pilot of AeroVelo “Atlas” Human Powered Helicopter Days Before The Prize Winning Flight Photo: AeroVelo |
“What is applicable is the very analytic and logical way” the team went about meeting the challenge and the multi-discipline design tools they developed, he said. It is an approach–made by the team without guidance–that is similar to what happens at Sikorsky.
“We’re not trying to leverage, but to inspire the next generation,” Tarascio said. “What we get out of it is creating the future engineers” that will create future Sikorksky helicopters.
“It was an unbelieveable engineering feat, but it will not help us develop the next generation commercial helicopter,” he said. “They inspire us.”
Sikorsky is examining alternative propulsion systems, such as electric helicopters.
Conceived by Todd Reichert and Cameron Robertson, along with the AeroVelo team, Atlas spans 46.9 meters (154 feet) rotor tip to rotor tip, while weighing only 55kgs (122 pounds).
Atlas is the largest human-powered helicopter to have flown, and the first in Canada, with each of its four rotors measuring nearly 70 feet. The airframe is constructed of very light carbon tube and polymer weighing only 115 pounds, with a highly modified bicycle frame pedaled by the pilot. It first flew in August 2012.
The record-breaking flight was piloted by Reichert, a cyclist and speed skater who has been working with high-performance coaches to develop the power and endurance necessary for a prize-winning flight. Reichert said: “Lifting off and floating above the ground is an incredible feeling, but it’s certainly no easy task. The sheer power required, combined with the high level of mental and physical control has made this a worthy athletic challenge.”
In addition to Chief Aerodynamicist and pilot Reichert, and Robertson as chief Structural Engineer, the team consists of volunteers and engineering students who are part of an experiential learning program at AeroVelo that uses human-powered vehicles as a design, innovation and learning platform.
The project is funded by donors in both the academic and corporate communities, including the University of Toronto, Bombardier, Pratt & Whitney Canada [UTX], Cervelo Cycles, CSR Inc., Kenneth Molson Foundation, the FAI, Bell Helicopter [TXT] and Cassidy’s Transfer & Storage Ltd.
In the future, AeroVelo hopes to tackle the two remaining human-powered aircraft challenges yet to be won; the Kremer Marathon Competition and the Kremer Sporting Aircraft Competition.
AHS first issued the human-powered flight challenge in 1980, with an initial prize of $10,000. Since then, many teams have attempted to meet the objective of creating a helicopter that could rise three meters and hover over a 10-meter-by-10-meter box for one minute using only human-generated power.
“When Sikorsky increased the prize to a quarter-million dollars in May 2009, many people were skeptical and felt the challenge was impossible,” said Mark Miller, vice president, research and engineering for Sikorsky. “And that is exactly why we raised the stakes–to encourage creative thinkers to prove that what is considered impossible is often proven to be possible. That has been the philosophy of Sikorsky Aircraft since the founding of our company by aviation pioneer Igor Sikorsky 90 years ago. Congratulations to the AeroVelo team!”
Mike Hirschberg, executive director of AHS International, said: “This is an incredible accomplishment. For a third of a century, the AHS Sikorsky Prize has eluded the best minds and technology available. The technological and theoretical advancements achieved in pursuit of our challenge have been astounding.”
“The past two years of the competition have been very exciting, with several teams racing to best one another, and more flights than the previous 30 years combined,” said Benjamin Hein, Chairman of the AHS Igor I. Sikorsky Human-Powered Helicopter Committee and a senior engineer at Sikorsky Aircraft.
More than 20 human-powered helicopters have been designed and built since the competition began, though only a handful have gotten off the ground.