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The human-powered helicopter

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2016

A. Filippone
A. Filippone*
Affiliation:
Dept of Mechanical, Aerospace, Manufacturing Engineering UMIST, Manchester, UK
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Abstract

This paper reviews the requirements of the AHS human-powered helicopter (HPH) competition and discusses the feasibility of such a helicopter. Analysis is carried out with modified forms of the axial momentum theory to take into account the ground effect. Descent in autorotation is also considered. The main conclusions are: human-powered hover out of ground effect is not possible; the power loading decreases with the number of pedaling crew members; hover in ground effect significantly increases the rotor thrust at given power; the HPH operates in the vortex ring state; in principle, either altitude or endurance records can be reached for the AHS contest, but not both, due to insufficient power.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 106 , Issue 1065 , November 2002 , pp. 613 - 618
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 2002 

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