Sadly not. Hovering near the ground only requires a fraction of the energy that real flight needs. This is why one man hovercrafts have a 10hp engine providing lift whereas one man helicopters like the GEN H-4 still can't really climb with 60hp.
@ludenscallida No, hovercraft need less power than helicopters because they have this thing called a skirt that maintains a cushion of air and stops the energy from being wasted.
It's pretty much the most basic physics possible that the force involved in hovering is only a little less than the force involved in flying, for it to be less than half your definition of "real flight" would have to involve accelerating at more than a g, which is silly.
Even if the craft weighed nothing at all and the rotors and transmission were 100% efficient the force acting downwards exceeds the energy available by more than double. Consider this: if human powered helicopters are possible then human powered hangliders and paragliders ought to be easily possible. Practical even. But they aren't and not by a long way either. Human powered nano-planes are marginally possible but only in ideal conditions at very low altitude and with an Olympian at the controls
@lordforbes What? That doesn't make any sense.The vehicle hovered for 11 seconds with the current takeoff weight, half of which was the weight of the vehicle. If the vehicle weighed nothing, then you'd have the same power with half of the weight. It would easily fly longer and higher.
@brandonbush1 Sadly not. Or at least not much. The relationship between energy and altitude is not linear. Hovering near the ground only requires a fraction of the energy that real flight needs. This is why one man hovercrafts have a 10hp engine providing lift whereas one man helicopters like the GEN H-4 still can't really climb with 60hp.
The purpose of projects like the one in the video is to show that it can be done - just. but for them to become commonplace they would need to be able to break free from ground effect which is impossible no matter how light you make the helicopter because the weight of the pilot is such a high proportion of the total weight.
@lordforbes It remains to be seen - you're jumping the gun and have not taken into consideration non-existent technologies. You could add helium and light nano turbines for 'buoyancy', many things which have not been developed yet. Your 100% certainty makes for bad science.
Adding electric assist defeats the object. That's solving a different problem. Of course a mechanically powered helicopter is possible, but the smallest personal helicopter, the GEN H-4 has about 40hp and still barely flies, whilst a fit human can make less than half a horsepower. Insignificant by comparison.
nope. the only thing that could make this viable is a human with twice the power to weight ratio. whatever you do with efficiency you still need to generate enough lift to support your weight against a force of 10m/s that's about 1000joules/sec too much by far.
@lordforbes That's not a impossible problem to solve. Power could be increased artificially via battery assist. Weight can be reduced further while increasing rigidity via the application of nanotechnololgy to the structure, which is still in its infancy. You give up way too easily.
I think all experiments like this are important. It's more about what can be discovered, than some direct application of the experimental vehicle itself. Go Terps.
so maybe Im not getting this right...but why dont they use gears like on a bicycle? low gears to get the blades turning then gear up so you arent killing yourself to get 10 RPMs.
that is a shit load of surface area on those blades, fill them up with light weight solar cells and you could produce about 10 times what that cyclist can... go on, do it.
First thing i would recommend is one of those skinny marathon runners from Ethiopia. You will probably need a larger building as well.
notsuretwo 1 day ago
Sadly not. Hovering near the ground only requires a fraction of the energy that real flight needs. This is why one man hovercrafts have a 10hp engine providing lift whereas one man helicopters like the GEN H-4 still can't really climb with 60hp.
ludenscallida 3 weeks ago
@ludenscallida No, hovercraft need less power than helicopters because they have this thing called a skirt that maintains a cushion of air and stops the energy from being wasted.
It's pretty much the most basic physics possible that the force involved in hovering is only a little less than the force involved in flying, for it to be less than half your definition of "real flight" would have to involve accelerating at more than a g, which is silly.
EvansRowan123 1 day ago
IT FLEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sceonn 3 weeks ago
thats the strangest kitchen ive ever seen.
zestydude87 3 weeks ago
Even if the craft weighed nothing at all and the rotors and transmission were 100% efficient the force acting downwards exceeds the energy available by more than double. Consider this: if human powered helicopters are possible then human powered hangliders and paragliders ought to be easily possible. Practical even. But they aren't and not by a long way either. Human powered nano-planes are marginally possible but only in ideal conditions at very low altitude and with an Olympian at the controls
lordforbes 1 month ago
Comment removed
TheUltimateCynic 1 month ago
@lordforbes What? That doesn't make any sense.The vehicle hovered for 11 seconds with the current takeoff weight, half of which was the weight of the vehicle. If the vehicle weighed nothing, then you'd have the same power with half of the weight. It would easily fly longer and higher.
brandonbush1 3 weeks ago
This has been flagged as spam show
@brandonbush1 Sadly not. Or at least not much. The relationship between energy and altitude is not linear. Hovering near the ground only requires a fraction of the energy that real flight needs. This is why one man hovercrafts have a 10hp engine providing lift whereas one man helicopters like the GEN H-4 still can't really climb with 60hp.
lordforbes 3 weeks ago
The purpose of projects like the one in the video is to show that it can be done - just. but for them to become commonplace they would need to be able to break free from ground effect which is impossible no matter how light you make the helicopter because the weight of the pilot is such a high proportion of the total weight.
lordforbes 1 month ago
This has been flagged as spam show
@lordforbes It remains to be seen - you're jumping the gun and have not taken into consideration non-existent technologies. You could add helium and light nano turbines for 'buoyancy', many things which have not been developed yet. Your 100% certainty makes for bad science.
TheUltimateCynic 1 month ago
Adding electric assist defeats the object. That's solving a different problem. Of course a mechanically powered helicopter is possible, but the smallest personal helicopter, the GEN H-4 has about 40hp and still barely flies, whilst a fit human can make less than half a horsepower. Insignificant by comparison.
lordforbes 1 month ago
because the rotors need to be very close to the ground to benefit from ground effect which greatly increases lift.
lordforbes 1 month ago
Why 4 rotors? Why not just 1 overhead spinning 4x faster making the overall device lighter?
adamtki 1 month ago
At the start i was like wtf is this a bicycle or something ?
itwsw 1 month ago
Massive waste of time and money.
Huntfishfun 1 month ago
@Huntfishfun Yeah, the same could have been said about the Wright brothers.
TheUltimateCynic 1 month ago
but in this case they;d be wright.
lordforbes 1 month ago
@Huntfishfun When nanotechnology is further advanced, this (human-powered copters) might become common place.
TheUltimateCynic 1 month ago
nope. the only thing that could make this viable is a human with twice the power to weight ratio. whatever you do with efficiency you still need to generate enough lift to support your weight against a force of 10m/s that's about 1000joules/sec too much by far.
lordforbes 1 month ago
@lordforbes That's not a impossible problem to solve. Power could be increased artificially via battery assist. Weight can be reduced further while increasing rigidity via the application of nanotechnololgy to the structure, which is still in its infancy. You give up way too easily.
TheUltimateCynic 1 month ago
Tether it, for god's sake. Why let it drift?
mintylisterine 1 month ago
did anyone else get freaked out by that muscle twitching at 0:24 ?
fundip2010 1 month ago
fill the wings with helium...its bound to help!
NigelLoller 1 month ago 3
Why are all of these human helicopter experiments in such confined places?
stinkystu1 2 months ago
@stinkystu1 To prevent wind interference. Any slight gust would throw it out of balance.
brandonbush1 3 weeks ago
First, can she climbs the ladder while carry all this weight? Not yet talk about riding on the air with it on her own power.
dvh065 2 months ago
@dvh065 and at 10M/Sec too.
lordforbes 1 month ago
I think all experiments like this are important. It's more about what can be discovered, than some direct application of the experimental vehicle itself. Go Terps.
jefftherealdrunk 3 months ago
so maybe Im not getting this right...but why dont they use gears like on a bicycle? low gears to get the blades turning then gear up so you arent killing yourself to get 10 RPMs.
CaptnInsan0 3 months ago
Just like the Yuri 1 from Japan in 1994.. paste caHCbuh_Yyc after the = in your browser to watch. Seems like you guys would give him some credit?
neukin 3 months ago
ok ... I've watched all the gamera videos and ... wow ... what an incredibly retarded waste of time ...
SavannahNight 4 months ago 2
that is a shit load of surface area on those blades, fill them up with light weight solar cells and you could produce about 10 times what that cyclist can... go on, do it.
zebidinofus 4 months ago
Was it just allowed to hit an object without being tethered to the floor?
Can UMD confirm? Thanks.
Can't stand thousands of hours jeopardized..
Philscbx 5 months ago
Coach Nelligan has some awesome gymnast to choose from.
GO TERPS!!
cheerdiver 5 months ago
Considering she had to work her ass off. until they find a better structure it wont be anything in the future.
xfire333 6 months ago
lol fail
Pikoux 6 months ago
what a sad thing...
viniciusb 6 months ago 6
congratulations Team Gamera !!!
sosweetsan 6 months ago
Where was the camera pointing?
heroineworshipper 6 months ago
did it realy leave the ground?
Tedwardo 6 months ago 6
up up and away!
cabdolla 7 months ago
Go team Gamera!!
brandonbush1 7 months ago