Saturday, May 14, 2011

Gamera: the flying turtle

I like things that fly; birds, planes, helicopters, and rockets. I also like bicycles and human powered vehicles. The students at the University of Maryland made a human powered helicopter that actually got off the ground. Congratulations to them! I think this is a really cool project. Even though flight is theoretically impossible with a human powered helicopter, the Gamera did get off the ground for a few seconds.

When watching the students work on this, via their live stream video, I kept thinking of two things; bumble bees, and JFK's famous "We do things not because they are easy, but because they are hard" speech at Rice University.

They'll be attempting to win the Sikorsky Prize in the fall. 

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