In response to the first message I received, I sent the following reply to which I received a response - see the message following my note:
From me:
Many thanks for your message relating to the possibility that the helicopter (really a gyroplane in this case) was invented many hundreds of years before most historians believe.
Although your story is very interesting, I won't be adding it to my website unless I am able to substantiate the information through any other sources. All of the information on my website has proven information to support it. If you are able to put me in touch with any recognised authority that would be able to provide authentication for your information I would be very interested. However, for the moment I find it very difficult to believe that people who could only record information by inscribing it on to animal bones and tortoise shells would be capable of building such a device. It would also be difficult for anybody to believe that a manpowered flying machine could travel such a distance. Even now, when composite lightweight materials are available for building flying machines, and computer technology is there to help prove the designs etc, manpowered machines are only capable of traveling much shorter distances.
The current distance and duration record recognised by the FAI was achieved on 23 April 1988 from Iraklion on Crete to Santorini in a
MIT Daedalus 88 (a fixed-wing aircraft) piloted by Kanellos Kanellopoulos: a straight distance of 115.11 km (74 miles) in 3 hours, 54 minutes.
For manpowered helicopters the following information is available:
The first officially observed human-powered helicopter to have left the ground was the Da Vinci III in 1989. It was designed and built by students at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in California, USA. It flew for 7.1 seconds and reached a height of 8 inches (20 cm). The second was the Yuri I in 1994, designed and built by students at Nihon University in Japan. It flew for 19.46 seconds and reached an altitude of 20 cm. Both were attempts to win the Sikorsky Prize.
Once again, many thanks for your interesting message. I hope to hear more from you regarding the source of the information.
Regards
From the originator of the original claim:
Dear Sir,
It is not necessary to amend your web page at once. Of course, you should study the information carefully, but I believe, finally you will do as Mr. Menzies has done (regarding who first found America). Mr. Menzies is a first class mariner, he finally announces that Zheng He was the first one who found America.
Yes, at beginning, I thought as you now think that the flying car is a gliding gyroplane. Gyro-glider is the only glider which can take off itself in strong wind. But if the wind is 70 km/h, the glider will take off easily since nowadays, a gyroplane can take off with a speed of 43 km/h. Once the flying car is in the air, the car will be accelerated in the air by the wind. When its speed relating to the ground rising, its airspeed will be reduced. Once the airspeed reduced to 50 km/h (since the flying car has less efficiency than modern gyroplane), it will be gliding down. When it touchs ground, since the speed relating to the ground is now reduced, its airspeed will rise at once, thus will cause the car to rise again. Therefore, it will have an average speed of 20 km/h. Since a man must eat and sleep, the Chigonese can only cover 250 km per day. Thus, 4 days will be spent for a voyage of 1,000 km. Is there a so strong wind can keep 4 days? Besides, Ko Hung taught us to build a human powered helicopter, therefore, the car must be equipped with "e-ring jerker". Thus, no matter how many seconds can it stay in the air, human power certainly can prolong the time to stay in the air. Thus, the average speed of the Chigonese will be raised to 30 or 40 km/h. Therefore, the wind lingered 2 or 3 days will be enough. Thus, the whole event will be possible. Wind was the main force to perform the flight, not human power, human power only acted for manoeuvre.
In Chigon territory, there are many kinds of bamboo, now the giant panda still eats bamboo. Therefore, people lived in Chigon has excellent skill to handling bamboo articles. The car was made of bamboo. No writing skill is in need. Since in that time, educated persons were never carrying out craftsmanship. Ko Hung recorded something about it, while his description was very vague. Don't tell me that US and Japan teams fail to do human powered helicopter, their devices are too complicate and heavy, why not to try Chigon's car? Sikorsky's requirement is not too criticle.