The team of engineering students from the University of Toronto have achieved excellent performances with their AeroVelo group, and have gathered quite an impressive number of prizes underneath their belt in just a few years.
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Imagine traveling 85 miles per hour on a bicycle, with your pedaling providing the only power.
Canadian Todd Reichert and his AeroVelo team have claimed the world record for human powered speed. In 2013, the company made a human-powered helicopter which maintained a successful flight for one minute and they won the Sikorsky Prize.
AeroVelo has been known in its initiatives concerning human-powered vehicles over the previous years, boosting its knowledge and confidence in the space.
So with this considerable momentum behind it, AeroVelo set about crafting a vehicle capable of propelling it even further into the record books.
The Eta bike was designed with an excellently aerodynamic shape that boastst 100 times less drag than the average auto , weighing around 55 pounds and able to reach a maximum of 87 miles per hour speed, according to the team of Canadian engineers.
The Eta, which is an update to AeroVelo’s 2012 bike named the Bluenose, has the pilot sitting in a recumbent position with the legs in front.
Although they got there in the end, Gizmag reports that not everything went to plan for the AeroVelo team on the day. It then sat out the second heat while repairs were made, in time for Reichart to enter the third and the rest is history. The bike encloses the rider in a capsule created with aerodynamics, and features a video monitor in front of the driver connected to a camera that is at the vehicle’s top to allow the pilot to see ahead.
The course for the event consists of a 5 mile (8 km) run-up section for the pilots to build speed before a 218 yard (200 m) section on which they are judged. Considering it absolutely cruised past the previous world record, it seems it hit its goal right on the head.
Nick was born outside of Melbourne, Australia, with a general curiosity that has drawn him to some distant (and very cold) places.
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However, the event is not yet over at the time of writing.
