Atlas - A Human Powered Helicopter
Introduction
In 1980, the American Helicopter Society established the Sikorsky prize — a challenge to build and fly a human powered helicopter that could stay in the air for 60 seconds, achieve an altitude of 3 metres (9.8 ft), and stay within a 10 by 10 metre square. 33 years later, Atlas took flight and won the elusive Sikorsky prize!
In May 2012, myself and a team of around 10 people moved to Tottenham, Ontario to begin building the helicopter. For the next four months, we worked in a barn in the countryside, designing and making the components of what proved to be an incredible helicopter. Although we weren't able to meet the requirements in our first round of flight testing, the team continued to tweak and improve the design over the next several months. On June 13, 2013 Atlas made the historic flight and put an end to the competition.
In 1980, the American Helicopter Society established the Sikorsky prize — a challenge to build and fly a human powered helicopter that could stay in the air for 60 seconds, achieve an altitude of 3 metres (9.8 ft), and stay within a 10 by 10 metre square. 33 years later, Atlas took flight and won the elusive Sikorsky prize!
In May 2012, myself and a team of around 10 people moved to Tottenham, Ontario to begin building the helicopter. For the next four months, we worked in a barn in the countryside, designing and making the components of what proved to be an incredible helicopter. Although we weren't able to meet the requirements in our first round of flight testing, the team continued to tweak and improve the design over the next several months. On June 13, 2013 Atlas made the historic flight and put an end to the competition.

My Role
Much of the helicopter is composed of carbon fibre tubes. These components were made from preimpregnated carbon fibre wrapped around aluminum mandrels, which were cured in a custom 30 foot oven. I was responsible for making a computer-controlled oven to follow specific ramping temperature profiles. This involved setting up an Arduino Uno with several thermistors, and a laptop for operation and logging.
Besides general construction tasks like wrapping and baking tubes, I also worked on fitting the individual members of the truss. Each carbon fibre tube needed to be sanded down or coped, in order to fit nicely with the other tubes. Since there was over 300 joints to cope, I setup a drill with various cylindrical sanding bits and a track to feed to carbon tubes at the correct angle.
Much of the helicopter is composed of carbon fibre tubes. These components were made from preimpregnated carbon fibre wrapped around aluminum mandrels, which were cured in a custom 30 foot oven. I was responsible for making a computer-controlled oven to follow specific ramping temperature profiles. This involved setting up an Arduino Uno with several thermistors, and a laptop for operation and logging.
Besides general construction tasks like wrapping and baking tubes, I also worked on fitting the individual members of the truss. Each carbon fibre tube needed to be sanded down or coped, in order to fit nicely with the other tubes. Since there was over 300 joints to cope, I setup a drill with various cylindrical sanding bits and a track to feed to carbon tubes at the correct angle.