Human Powered Helicopter - Armchair Engineers Welcome!

what about pre-loading a spring with a 40 minute warmup ride then usie the spring potential to augment the riders output? it would be like doing a hill climb then going faster on the downhill.

Would that be allowed? or would that be cheating? I like the idea of using brakes to control the rotor speed. Maybe an electric system could be developed where regenerative braking could provide additional power to the other rotors without bringing in an outside power source. Kind of like a prius.

… I suspect the actual power requirement could be over 1000 watts. Is this a human accessible power? …

depends very much on rider weight in this experiment. some people could push 1000 watts for a minute, but they tend to be on the heavy side. they need to find a pilot with exceptional power/weight ratio, like a pro roadie.

I didn't read the specifics of the contest, but I'm guessing electric assist is not part of the program.

They need Lopes.

Have the rider turning a small hydraulic pump with an accumulator in the circuit to smooth out the pulses from his pedalstrokes,which then turns a hydraulic motor that spins the rotor through a gearbox. You could also tee in a circuit for a tail rotor and control its speed with a manual flow control valve.

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Sounds like NSMB should be building their own prototype!

Sounds like NSMB should be building their own prototype!

You know that idea would never get off the ground…

You know that idea would never get off the ground…

As long as we don't involve conveyor belts,we should be good.

They seem to get off the ground based on the ground effect - the rotors are extra effective in close proximity to the ground. The chopper climbs to 8 feet pretty easily,but no further, despite the intense effort.

Have the rider turning a small hydraulic pump with an accumulator in the circuit to smooth out the pulses from his pedalstrokes,which then turns a hydraulic motor that spins the rotor through a gearbox. You could also tee in a circuit for a tail rotor and control its speed with a manual flow control valve.

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Transmission losses much?

They seem to get off the ground based on the ground effect - the rotors are extra effective in close proximity to the ground. The chopper climbs to 8 feet pretty easily,but no further, despite the intense effort.

Agreed. Which makes my think of two possible solutions:
1) Lower the rotors. Have the pilot sitting above the rotors so that, at take off, the rotors are literally inches off the ground.

2) Have a single larger rotor and tail rotor like a conventional 'copter. Ground effect is good up to roughly the diameter of the rotor. Conventional reasoning says increase the rotor size to increase the range over which ground effect acts.

I'm not sure what the motivation is to have multiple rotors as they have? Seems like it requires a lot of structure that could be avoided with a conventional design?

2) Have a single larger rotor and tail rotor like a conventional 'copter. Ground effect is good up to roughly the diameter of the rotor. Conventional reasoning says increase the rotor size to increase the range over which ground effect acts.

I'm not sure what the motivation is to have multiple rotors as they have? Seems like it requires a lot of structure that could be avoided with a conventional design?

the tail rotor offers no lift and is therefore a waste of the pilots energy. 3 would seem a smarter choice for stability. though. A three legged table doesn't rock around on you… Might be completely different in the air though.