For students at the University of Maryland, the day of reckoning for their two-year investment in a new type of aviation had finally arrived.
More than 50 students worked rigorously, some even sacrificing rest and holidays, in hopes of getting their human-powered helicopter, the Gamera, off the ground.
“It does take, sometimes, 24-hour days and sleepless nights and all of that,” said Brandon Bush, one of the leaders, about the selection of team members. “So, if you’re not dedicated to it and you’re not really interested in it, you’re not going to be good at it and you’re not going to help the team.”
At stake, ultimately, was a place in the record books. Although two other schools had achieved flight, neither one had the event formally documented. The unofficial record was set by students at Nihon University in Japan in 1994. Their helicopter was off the ground for more than 19 seconds.
The Sikorsky Prize serves as the ultimate goal for any human-powered helicopter projects. Set up by the American Helicopter Society in the 1980s, there are three rules each team must achieve to win the $250,000 reward. First, the flight must reach a height of three meters high. Second, it must remain in the air for one minute. Finally, the helicopter needs to remain in a 10 meter square.
Maryland brought in a judge from the National Aeronautic Association, to witness the event and capture it on video. That way the team could have an official record if they left the ground. They kept the project under wraps until April, since there were rumors of similar projects happening at Georgia Tech and the University of Michigan.
The students moved the helicopter into the auxiliary gym of the Comcast Center in College Park, Md., on May 5. It was the only room big enough to hold the vehicle. It also would be a controlled environment, where no other air sources could alter its flight. They had until the end of the day on May 12 to complete their testing, and they hoped, set a record.
Before assembling the helicopter in the auxiliary gym, the students had been working in four separate units. When they fit everything together in the gym, it was the first time as a functioning unit. As engineers, they expected hiccups along the way.
After the first day of testing, many media members and the crowd that came to watch the performance left disappointed. Many of them felt the helicopter would never leave the ground. Wexler had been pedaling at a rapid pace, but the helicopter looked bound to the ground.
“I think the most exhausting thing was the mental starting and stopping, starting and stopping, rather than the physical exertion, because I really didn’t spend that much time actually pedaling yesterday,” Wexler said.
Thursday’s flight meant a lot more than just getting off the ground to the students. Sustained flight, which meant concurrently getting the blades and the cockpit off the ground would be an accomplishment itself, but with a female pilot, Maryland was hoping to reach new heights, literally.
“Our goal right now is just to break the world record, so that’s about 20 seconds, and we’ll just keep pushing the limit after each record we break,” said Tyler Fean, one of the first students to jump on the project.
It took nearly two days to get their testing to a satisfactory level for engineers, judges and the pilot, Judy Wexler.
Flyers had been posted outside of the biology building on the College Park, Md., campus and Wexler fit the profile of someone who was lightweight and athletic to power the helicopter.
Wexler had done a lot of bike riding in the past, but this particular adventure required her to learn new techniques. “The hardest thing overall is getting used to the recombinant bicycling position,” she said. “Instead of pedaling in an up and down motion, you’re pedaling in a forward and backward motion.”
The Gamera flew for about four seconds, unofficially, but there was no conclusive replay to show that all of the blades and the cockpit were off the ground at the same time. The students were still thrilled.
“This is engineering at its finest,” said Colin Gore, an engineering student and alternate pilot. “[You’re] dealing with real world constraints, like time and materials that you had on hand. But these guys are brilliant, they’re a crack team of engineers and I was just glad to be a small part of this and watch this happen.”
Getting the Gamera off the ground is only the beginning of this project for the university. “As we continue in the future, we’ll go for people who have a little more power and endurance and try to go for those bigger milestones, longer record times and higher flights,” said Gore.
In other words, that elusive Sikorsky Prize may be more reachable than you think.