No matter how much well-resourced and mechanized we get, it is still not more than just a fantasy to fly human controlled helicopters. However, man is still trying hard to turn this dream into a big reality. Sikorsky Prize for human-powered helicopter was set back in 1980. This award is said to be rewarded to the team that has ability to fly an air flight merely controlled by humans without having any support for electrical energy sources for a complete one-minute. Moreover, the air craft will not be allowed to leave a 10 square meter box and the distance must be more than 3 meters between the aircraft and the ground. Though, the choice of the number of people needed to power the aircraft can be decided by the competing team.
The recent winning-price is claimed to be quoted as $250,000 which is not that impressive that one can cost on his life. A video displaying such stunt has highlighted two attempts for the prize. The person named Gluesenkamp is trying to fly a quadcopter and was able to cover 8 feet into the air. Due to the persistent sprint, he was unable to make more than 8 feet as the sprint was hindering the capabilities of the helicopter.
Another attempt was made by a team from University of Maryland. They were able to take their craft off up to 9 foot mark. This is remained to be a record in the world till yet, however with the passage of time we can expect some better efforts to be done for flying a human-controlled craft.
