University of Maryland, Gamera Team Sets New Unofficial World Record for Human-Powered Helicopter Flight, June 23, 2012
Students from the University of Maryland's A. James Clark School of Engineering set an unofficial world record of 50 seconds for the duration of a human-powered helicopter flight, far surpassing their 2011 world record of 11.4 seconds with Gamera I and any unofficial flights of prior years. The time will be submitted to the National Aeronautic Association by judge Kris Maynard. The validation process will likely take a few weeks....
Dean Pines, together with faculty mentors Inder Chopra and VT Nagaraj, challenged the team to win the American Helicopter Society's Igor I. Sikorsky Human-Powered Helicopter Competition which requires that a human-powered helicopter fly for 60 seconds, achieve an altitude of three meters sometime during that time, and remain with a 10 square meter area.