Test Pilots needed....you ready Nick, Shawn.....

[SASless]

Here is th perfect Test flight project for pprune legends Nick Lappos and Shawn Coyle to collaborate in and thereby set a new world record.

I volunteer for the ground crew and will provide the high energy drinks and food for the flight crew.....Flying Lawyer can take on the legal aspects of the record attempt. Aesir can be the FAI Rep....S92 Mech and Ghengis can undertake the maintenance engineering....and of course Nick's dear friend and confidant LU can oversee the design engineering with the able assistance of Dave. What say ye.....up for it? Granted the easy part will be Nick and Shawn's role in the endeavour.

From Avweb news this morning....


Very Fit Chopper Pilots Sought
Let's see, in the past year we've accomplished privately funded space flight, a man has circled the globe solo on a single tank of gas and airliner that can carry up to 800 people has successfully flown. Although the frontiers of flight seem to be pushed further each year, there are still a few seemingly primitive milestones that have not been achieved. For instance, the American Helicopter Society appears to be seeking takers for a $20,000 prize to be awarded for the first controlled, human-powered helicopter flight. To take home the check, all the winner has to do is hover for a minute, rise at least three meters above the ground and stay within a 10-meter square. At least one member of the crew has to be "non-rotating" during the flight and the vehicle must conduct the entire flight on power supplied by the person or people on board (no stored energy devices, gas bags, or external boosts).

[Grainger]

power supplied by the person or people on board (no ... gas bags). Well, that's most of us Rotorheads ruled out for a start ;)

[Genghis the Engineer]

Ghengis can undertake the maintenance engineering Trust me on this, that would be a mistake! Leave that to S92 !


I did my degrees at Southampton University which was one of the first places (albeit a little before my time) to produce a successful manpowered fixed wing. They didn't win any prizes 'cos it wouldn't turn out of ground effect, but in a straight line it apparently went pretty well - and can still be seen in that city's aviation museum.

Although the initial testing was done by Derek Piggot, what they did in that instance was pick a near-world class athlete (the captain of the university's cycling team I think), and train them to fly for the record attempt. I suspect that this is the way ahead - it'll take less time to train an athlete to hover, than to turn a helicopter pilot into a world class athlete.


Anyhow, I can think of easier ways to earn $20k - always assuming it's possible, which I doubt. I don't think anybody's managed a succesful passenger carrying manpowered fixed-wing, let alone hovering a helicopter with a passenger for a whole minute.

G

N.B. http://www.spitfireonline.co.uk/popup/other7.html

[jbrereton]

My wife can do it without any aids.

Going though the change of life! Groan

She might lose out on the "controlled" bit though

JB

[Dave_Jackson]

Nick and Shawn may not want to give up the good libations http://www.unicopter.com/BeerToast.gif while they train.

University of British Columbia's AHS human powered flight (http://www.mech.ubc.ca/~hph/index2.html).

[Graviman]

OK so actually designing a heli for this is impractical, but this is still an interesting paper exercise. Another paper exersise would be designing a rotor system capable of lifting a 25 tonne truck (and maybe the 40 tonne payload), for self-delivery to it's customer - the rest of the design team hasn't bought into that one yet... :\

I'm guessing very long rotor blades (dur := ), but how many per rotor? 2 for least drag? What rotor head (teetering probably)? What config, Coaxial or Conventional? Does a tip ring have merit?

No Dave, you can't have an intermesher by default :rolleyes: ...

Mart

[PO dust devil]

Kinda reminds me of Fred and Barney in the old Flinstones cartoon. I think they peddled their way into prehistory in something that looked like a log with a cog.


DD

[cl12pv2s]

How's this? Not quite sure where the PAX sit!

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0006IGWJO.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Maybe not human / wookie powered, but interesting anyway.

http://images.entertainmentearth.com/AUTOIMAGES/HS85637lg.jpg

cl12pv2s

[Dave_Jackson]

Graviman,
OK no intermesher for lifting your 25 tonne truck. Here's an interleaver (http://www.unicopter.com/1461.html) :O

[NickLappos]

If I had to lift my own weight to save my life, I'd be a dead man!

Seriously, the trick is all structural, like the first man-powered airplanes.

Weight reduction while retaining enormous lifting surfaces is the challenge. Very low disk loading is needed, thus long rotor blades, but with very light structures.

When I get a bit more time today, I will try to develope a design solution (not a practical one, mind you, but at least a target).

[moosp]

I'm sure we have all pondered on this over the years, and read the erudite papers from professors around the world stating, with full mathematical backup, that it is impossible.

I am the proud possessor of several copies of "Flight" magazine, dating back to 1910. In one of them a university professor categorically states that it will be impossible for the human body to travel at more than 250 mph, before his ribs cave in. I have, since reading this article, had a healthy skepticism for "can't" and "impossible" statements from the contemporary experts.

"Any suitably advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" said Isaac Asimov.

Trust your design engineers, especially the ones who seem to be doing things that are impossible.

Our present aerodynamic "theory" is still a bit wooly on insect wings, diving raptor birds, and dare I say it, helicopters. There is much more work to be done, on powered and manpowered flight

[SASless]

Nick,

You took advantage of my good manners....in my original post I considered asking if there was a "wide body" class in the competition.

But then too....I ruled myself ineligible for the flight crew because no "Gas Bags" were allowed.

[Genghis the Engineer]

"Any suitably advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" said Isaac Asimov.
No he didn't, that's Clarke's third law (http://www.lsi.usp.br/~rbianchi/clarke/ACC.Laws.html)

None of these dodgy American SF writers here if you please, stick to proper British ones.

G

[slowrotor]

Human powered helicopter flight has been done by a university team in southern california. They could not lift high enough to win the prize.
The ship was about 100 feet span with prop tip drive.

Paul McCready, who won every major human powered aircraft prize, says "for a helicopter about 150 feet of span would be needed". He should know.

An athlete can put out about .25 hp sustained and 1 hp for a brief burst of power.

Nick, a small model airplane motor of two hp or so might lift you off the ground.

[Graviman]

Checking out:

http://www.mech.ubc.ca/~hph/index2.html

I do wonder why not just use a single rotor with a stator beneath. It would be light and efficient. Put rings around rotor and stator and you get no adverse tip vortex interactions (less drag). The alternative "trick" might be lots of individual slow rpm rotors, to keep tip speeds very low - i have often wondered why multiwings (biplanes etc), with top rearward staggering (avoiding downwash interference), have never made a comeback for human powered flight...

"OK no intermesher for lifting your 25 tonne truck. Here's an interleaver"

Now you've just taken that too far , haven't you Dave. :uhoh:
Or have you? Multirotor motor gen set HPH...


"Any suitably advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"

Hehehe - i like magic! I like Clark and Asimov too. Maybe i'm jus' a design engineer who likes doing things that are impossible. ;)

Mart

[Edit:Speeleng]

[Dave_Jackson]

China submits the following as a contender for the PPRuNe entrant in The American Helicopter Society Igor I. Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter Competition (http://www.vtol.org/awards/hph.html ). The Chinese also acknowledge that Nick might have the inside track.

The Bio-engine Submission.

This entrant consists of an extremely large silk parachute spread out over a bean field. The inventor, the enema professor Who Flung Dung, will then climb into his flight suit, which consists of a large aerated diaper and a modified aluminum coolie hat. He will then crawl under the parachute and proceeds to eat beans for the next six day. On the seventh day he will rest.

During this time, he will afluviate into the parachute and **** in to the aerated diaper. [Heliport says 'no ****'] OK. During this time, he will fart into the parachute and dung in to the aerated diaper. The dung will dry.

On Monday, the day of ascension, he will strap on the parachute harness, start flinging dung onto his aluminum coolie hat, and then light a match. The explosion of the methane will causes the parachute and the attached 'pilot' to immediately jump up the required 3 meters. It will also ignite the dung in the aluminum hat. However, the professor will be flinging more dung from the diaper onto the hat. This will result in the parachute acting as a hot air balloon for the remaining sixty seconds.

Some people consider the professor to be a hothead but the professor believes that Sikorsky's $22,000.00 will be his even though the US recently raised the duty on cotton diapers.

[Graviman]

It does raise several interesting points. If the cyclist charges a car battery for a day, and uses this in the attempt, does this contravene the rules? Also with the size of the Thunderbird blades, i suspect they could also have filled them with helium to generate a large portion (if not all) of the required lift.

I couldn't see from the Thunderbird site, but i gather the co-axial tip velocities were the same. I'm amazed they didn't go for a more refined planform shape though, given the construction.

Still one point comes over, the main problem was with the drivetrain complexity...

Mart

[jbrereton]

Surely the problem is getting a rotor up to speed in the first place assuming it would be rather large.

If our superhuman wound up a large gyro by cycling and used this to get a huge rotor turning up to a certain speed, using a clutch.

Once it was at this predetermined speed he would disengage this drive from the gyro onto the rotor and continue the acceleration enough to be able to lift off.

I am no mechanic!

Would this count.