With headlines that love to talk about binge drinking, immoral activity, and other craziness at colleges and universities around the country, it can be easy to forget that there are lots of brilliant kids doing amazing things at those places of higher learning. Take this video for example. It features a group of students at the University of Maryland (engineers we suspect) testing their human powered helicopter inside a school gymnasium. This thing is a huge contraption with long trusses made of carbon fiber and multiple lightweight rotors. The guy flying the thing is working his behind off both pedaling with his feet and arms to keep the craft afloat.
As it happens, the helicopter climbs nearly 10 feet in the air (missing a world record for such craft by just 5 inches) and seems to be navigating the gym well. Unfortunately, while coming back down, one of the huge carbon fiber trusses folds up like wet cardboard and the helicopter with its pilot comes down like a ton of bricks. The kid flying was OK, but the team has work to do. The reason for the construction of the helicopter is to compete for the Sikorsky prize which will be awarded to the first human powered helicopter that can stay afloat for 60-seconds, achieve an altitude of 9.8ft, and stay within a 30ft square box. No one had done it yet when this video was made.
Before you write off all college kids as drunken louts, let this video serve as a slice of hope that smart kids are out there creating the technology that will revolutionize the world in the coming decades.
