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.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 613-618 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Aeronautical Journal |
| Volume | 106 |
| Issue number | 1065 |
| Publication status | Published - Nov 2002 |