In June of 1998, a group of engineers & students at the University of British Columbia embarked on a quest to build the world’s first human powered helicopter. It was launched in 2004 and never took off, but it was still a great idea. Either way, someone in the future is bound to succeed…. maybe 10 years from now people will be “pedaling the friendly skies!”

Check out the gearbox in this thing…

The wing span was actually wider than that of a Boeing 737. Basically, the design consisted of two separate rotors that spun in opposing directions. In theory, if the top rotor got to 6.2 rpm’s and the bottom rotor got to 3.6 rpm’s, the beast would lift off. Here’s a pic of one of the wings…

And the cockpit…

What does this have to do with mountain biking? Absolutely nothing. But trust me, the “pilot” was a cyclist. They searched around for the leanest, most powerful biker they could find…. Short of Lance, of course. Check out the video of the first attempt to fly this thing.

You can shoot over to the “Thunderbird Project” website and get more details.