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The Igor I. Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter Competition was established in 1980 by the American Helicopter Society (AHS) International. The award, the AHS Sikorsky Prize, was given for the first human powered helicopter (HPH) to meet a set of extremely challenging flight requirements. In summary, the requirements to win the AHS Sikorsky Prize included a flight duration of 60 seconds and reaching an altitude of , with the center point of the aircraft hovering over a square.〔AHS International, (Human Powered Helicopter Regulations ), retrieved July 12, 2013.〕 In 2013, 33 years after the competition was established, the award was officially declared won when AeroVelo's Atlas human-powered helicopter conducted a flight that met all the requirements of the AHS International competition, and received the $250,000 prize.〔 In the history of the prize, dozens of teams have designed and built human-powered helicopters, although only five of them made it airborne.〔Hirschberg, Mike, ''Vertiflite'', "(Human Powered Helicopters Rise Higher )", November–December, 2012. Retrieved July 12, 2013.〕 ==History== The AHS competition was named in honor of Igor Sikorsky, one of the founders of the technical society. AHS initiated the prize purse at $25,000,〔http://www.vtol.org/hph〕 but later raised it to $250,000.〔 The first HPH to get off the ground was the ''Da Vinci III'' in 1989, designed and built by students at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in California, USA. It flew for 7.1 seconds and reached a height of . The second was the ''Yuri I'' in 1994, designed and built by students at Nihon University in Japan. It flew for 19.46 seconds and reached an altitude of 20 cm.〔Hirschberg, Mike, ''Vertiflite'', "Human Powered Helicopters Take-Off", July–August, 2012〕 With no human-powered helicopter getting off the ground since 1994, in 2009 Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation pledged to AHS International an increase in the size of the remuneration to $250,000, which significantly increased interest in the competition.〔 It resulted in a new generation of human-powered helicopter teams, with two—one the University of Maryland and the other AeroVelo—in a "tight battle" to win.〔 Students at the University of Maryland designed and built the ''Gamera I''. The ''Gamera I'' successfully flew on May 12, 2011 for approximately four seconds, soon followed by a flight of 11 seconds. In November 2011 construction began on the improved ''Gamera II''. On June 21, 2012, the ''Gamera II'' flew for a duration of 50 seconds. Additional tests of Gamera IIXR with a larger cruciform and longer rotors on August 28, 2012 yielded official world records of 65 seconds endurance on one flight and 8 ft altitude on another – the first "high altitude" flight of a human powered helicopter in history, and the first of the individual requirements to fall.〔AHS International, Gamera team continues setting records, August 28, 2012. Retrieved July 12, 2013.〕 On June 24, 2012, the NTS Works Upturn human-powered helicopter also successfully flew for 10 seconds, climbing to about . NTS Works later donated the aircraft to the California Polytechnic State University which is developing it as the Upturn II.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Igor I. Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter Competition」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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