Human-Powered Helicopters: Helping Man Fly, One at a Time (VIDEO)

The day when pigs can fly hasn't come--yet. But now we humans can, at least for about a minute. A team of nerds students from the University of Maryland have built a human-powered helicopter that can hover up to 3 meters high (that's ten feet for English folks) and move about ten meters from its lift-off point.

Of course, the person actually riding on the four-rotor helicopter will have to pedal to keep the thing running. It weighs 80 pounds, so add the weight of person actually riding the thing and it's a pretty heavy mechanism to lift off the ground.

Nonetheless, it's a worthwhile effort and while it's far from becoming commercialized for all the wannabe flyers, it definitely has a shot at the $250,000 Sikorsky Prize that the students are trying to win.