The University of Maryland created history when they managed to lift off their solar-powered helicopter, Solar Gamera. This is the first time ever that a piloted, solar-powered helicopter has gone airborne, and remained in the air for nine seconds.
The project is headed by materials science major Michelle Mahon, which helped in making the 100-square-foot Solar Gamera fly twice. The solar panels were created by the students themselves, and the craft uses electronic controls for manoeuvring. And the doctorate student William Staruk, a member of the Solar Gamera team, believes that the team can build on the nine second time to allow Solar Gamera fly for longer periods of time.
![Pic Credits: University of Maryland](http://wonderfulengineering.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Solar-Gamera-Team-1020x610-610x365.jpg)
Gamera has been making headlines for several years now. Back in 2011, the Gamera project made the longest human-powered flight in the United States and also set the record for the longest human-powered flight by a woman in the world. Gamera II then broke the record of highest altitude being reached by a human-powered helicopter. And from 2014, students changed the structure of the helicopter by adding solar power to the design.
Staruk said in the video, “This project has come a long way in the past six of seven years from human power to solar power. So we are breaking barriers of all sorts of aviation with this one airframe.”
![Pic Credits: University of Maryland](http://wonderfulengineering.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Solar-Gamera-Helicopter-1020x610-610x365.jpg)
According to Solar Gamera faculty advisor Inderjit Chopra, “This is about inspiring and educating students, that’s our product here. No one thought that solar energy could lift a person [via helicopter].”
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