18 
This past June, a determined pilot managed to keep the human-powered Gamera II in the air for a whopping 50 seconds. Impressive, but it only hovered a little. This flight, while much shorter, nabbed a record of its own by soaring to the great height of 8 feet.
The ultimate goal here is the Sikorsky Prize. Laying unclaimed since 1980, the $250,000 prize is to be awarded to the first people who can make a man-made flying device that can reach a height of 10 feet and maintain that for one minute. The Gamera II hasn’t satisified either of these critera yet, much less at the same time, but it seems to be coming pretty close on both fronts. $250,000 is a nice chunk of change, but building a human-powered flying machine that can fly like that is a reward all it’s own. Let’s hope they can manage to pull it off. [Engadget]
Chuck Wiggo on that thing
DAMMIT- beat me to it.
I was watching a program on his (Wiggos) power output- and more importantly sustained power output.
It is mindblowing…..
If a normal human can do what the current pilot did I would bet my left dangly they could beak the prize with Wiggo….
It’s only 60 seconds surely Cav would smash this,
It does look suspiciously like Team GB lycra too..
Genuinely awesome.
This is why I love engineering.
Ohh, a man powered HELICOPTER! I thought it was for any old man powered flying machine and was about to link this:
http://youtu.be/yVs5q1quZEI
I’ll link it anyway, impressive stuff.
Turn on CC
The kid at the end…