Last summer a team of engineering students from the Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland created a human-powered helicopter called Gamera, they managed to get it off the ground and keep it aloft for 11 seconds. However their new model, the Gamera 2 managed to stay airborne for a solid 50 seconds, smashing the world record.
The Gamera II has been improved from its predecessor in many ways. It is 105 feet across, and each of the four rotors are 42 feet long. Thanks to the weight saving benefits of carbon fibre the entire helicopter weighs just 32 kilos, which is over 13 kilos lighter than the previous design.