This article was taken from the February 2015 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
AeroVelo, an Ontario-based engineering team, have smashed the world speed record for a human-powered vehicle, hitting 85.71 MPH on a highway in Battle Mountain, Nevada, with their AeroVelo cycle. WIRED met the team months before the attempt to find out how they designed their way to a new world record.
If Todd Reichert cannot regain control of his ultrafast bike, he will be cast at 120kph into the unforgiving rock and scrub that lies beside the highway in the Nevada desert.
Reichert is familiar with extreme situations: the 32-year-old aerospace engineer and athlete was co-designer and pilot of the first human-powered ornithopter -- a craft that flies by flapping its wings -- to soar continuously, and the first ever human-powered helicopter to become airborne. These remarkable feats have earned him hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money and the backing of Google. But today's attempt to break the world speed record for a human-powered vehicle is going seriously awry.
Reichert wouldn't be the first man to perish in this dust-blown corner of northwest Nevada's rough sierras. At an elevation of more than 1,400m the valleys burn beneath treeless peaks and temperatures can hit 90°C even on an autumn morning. In the 19th century, California Trail pioneers succumbed to thirst and disease here, or were shot by Native Americans. One such bloody skirmish gave a name to the range and the small town that sits beneath it on Interstate 80: Battle Mountain.
Until now, though, no one has contrived to perish in a fibreglass egg. It's Saturday, September 13, the last day of the World Human Powered Speed Challenge (WHPSC), and the egg in question is the ultra-lightweight speed bike Eta. Before he got in, Reichert, the joint leader of Canadian team AeroVelo, described Eta as "very, very fast -- it could be the fastest man-powered vehicle on Earth". The claim is based on experience: AeroVelo first competed at Battle Mountain in 2011 where the team set a new college record of 116.9kph. The following year they enteredBluenose, a bike that reached 125kph.
On Thursday -- two days before the record attempt -- Reichert's best time is 101.3kph. Only six sessions remain to reach 140kph, but there is no tension between the pair. "We've never had any blow-ups," Robertson says. "We keep cool. Todd has a lot of physiological issues and I certainly get tired but our minds are always racing -- thinking or talking about the next thing." On Friday morning more spokes explode and Eta leaves the road. It's a controlled exit, but it necessitates Robertson pulling the van to a halt and the team rushing out to catch Eta before it tumbles into a bush. When he clambers out Reichert has one word: "Spokes!"
AeroVelo's helicopter -- a four-month summer project that ended up taking 18 months -- serves as AeroVelo's difficulty benchmark. "This is nearly as bad as the helicopter," is heard throughout the week. But the spoke incident provokes something new from a team member: "This is harder than the helicopter." Robertson looks up and says with a finality that settles the issue: "This is not harder than the helicopter." But the fear that broken spokes could be the undoing of this attempt has entered the room.
The team sets about rebuilding the wheel in one day and the Friday evening run is fast. Reichert makes 126.3kph and he's smiling when he extracts himself from the frame: he's getting closer. "I'm still not up to full power," he says. "We can go quicker. We can do it."
The pressure to succeed and attract funding is not as intense as in previous years -- winning the AHS Sikorsky prize has led to a wealth of opportunities. The pair now give talks and have begun to attract financial backing, with Google one of the team's sponsors. "It's given us the freedom to expand -- we have finally succeeded at making our business model sustainable. The $250,000 AHS Sikorsky prize was effectively our current budget. This will allow us to take things to the next level."
The next level is another plane and another "unwinnable" prize: the £50,000 Kremer International Marathon Competition. Launched in 1988, it requires a human-powered aircraft to complete a course with two turning points "not less than 4,051 metres apart", including take off and landing, in under an hour. "No one has come close to getting it," says Reichert. "It's theoretically impossible. It's perfect."
AeroVelo's plan features a key conceptual shift. "The big difference to previous attempts," says Robertson, "is that instead of a single pilot, we have multiple pilots spread along the span of the aircraft, so the flight speed goes up without a substantial increase in the power required from each pilot. There's a lot of difficulty in this solution, certainly in terms of how flexible the aircraft will be and having that many fit pilots -- but it's a simple but novel approach. Again, people say it's impossible, but if you say that you really should qualify it. Maybe it isn't possible in a single piloted aircraft with current technology, but our preliminary calculations show that it can be done. When people say it's not possible, it's because they haven't thought about how to make it possible. And that's our business. Making the impossible happen is what we do."
Saturday comes around, the day of AeroVelo's attempt at breaking the speed record. The team drives out to the track before dawn. The three crows stand by the roadside, greeting the Sun with a cacophony of squawks. Then, in a flash, a coyote comes out of the bush and takes one by the throat. It's not yet fully light and the day has its first casualty. Will it be the only one? Will those spokes hold?
Three hours later all questions have been answered. After Reichert's near-disastrous wobble, the team gather around a long table at the civic centre. Three front-wheel spokes are broken and it is clear AeroVelo is facing a mission-ending problem. Robertson, wearing a faded blue boiler suit dotted with Manchester United and Nasa badges, sketches out the problem, as engineers do. Reichert, still wearing sweat-stained racing Lycra, addresses the team. For once, his indomitable confidence is dented: "It doesn't look good, but I don't want to stop because there was an idea that we didn't look at properly. So what have we got?"
Team members throw solutions at Reichert. Each, in turn, is shot down. "Find new rims?" The nearest bike shops are in Reno, hundreds of kilometres away. "Build a new disc wheel out of carbon fibre?" There isn't enough time. "Borrow some other wheels?" None of the other teams has any that will fit Eta. "What if we just rig up the wheel with spokes and give it one more go?"Eventually Reichert submits to reality. "There are a lot of problems with these solutions. If everything goes perfectly we might inch out the record, but I might crash and die." Gravely, he looks around the table: "It's not worth it."
Despite the disappointment, all is not lost: the AeroVelo bid was always about more than just breaking a record. "It's about sharing the information and putting it out there," says Reichert. "The ornithopter, the helicopter, the bike -- none of them are going to be practical forms of transportation, it's just not what they're for. But the technology in this bike means it could cross North America on less than a quarter of a tank of petrol if it had a small engine. It's not just ten per cent more efficient. It is more than that."
With such a mission, relationships with headline sponsors such as Google to nurse and a new flight prize to chase, will AeroVelo be coming to Battle Mountain next year? The answer is a resounding yes. "This bike is going to be the fastest next year. We haven't even hit full power yet. This..." Reichert says, the fire back in his eyes, "...is way better than the helicopter."
Michael Hodges is an award-winning author and journalist. He wrote about Global Witness in 08.14
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
