Project: Thunderbird

The Thunderbird project was started in 1998 by students at the University of British Columbia and flight was attempted in August of 2004. The attempt was meant mainly as a demonstration as the team knew that more work was needed to lower the weight. Sadly, the attempt caused some damage but it did reveal some aspects of the design, other than reducing the weight, that needed work - such as stiffening the transmission. If you can, please sponsor this team. For more information see their website. Here are some photos and videos from their website:

• Article from Education and Campus News, by Jim Bell
• Video of first attempt in 2004
• Video of second attempt in 2004
• Photos of flight attempt in 2004. Great resolution!
• Article at Vancouver Courrier NEW
• Article in UBC Reports NEW
• Article in the CASI Log, August 2000, Vol. 8, No. 4, pp 10-11, Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institiute. NEW

A paragraph quoted from the Ubyssey newspaper, 7 Sept. 2004: Mancopter fails flight. A group of engineers attempted to build the first man-powered helicopter to fly for one minute to a height of three metres. Mike Georgallis, team project leader explained that the difficulty was not due to the pilot; it resulted from the instability of the machine due to the rotors, and to the fact that they were performing outdoors. The project ended up costing $75,000 after UBC initially funded $10,000. Despite the unsuccessful attempt, Georgallis said that he was not disappointed. “The biggest contribution that we can make here is for others to be inspired enough to build even better machines.”

	The team.			Schematic view.
	CAD Models.			Transmission
	Pilot/Engine on test day.