"Sex" and the College Park City

Forget that a select group of University of Maryland engineering students and teachers are on the brink of setting a world record for the first official human-powered helicopter, aka Gamera 

What's important about today's event is that the cyclist/engine for the quad-rotor behemoth is a dead ringer at camera distance for Sex and the City's Carrie Bradshaw (or Sarah Jessica Parker, if you happen to live in the real world).

Testing began this morning (in anticipation of a record attempt tomorrow) starting with several test runs with Carrie, I mean, life sciences graduate student Judy Wexler pedalling the innovative quad's four rotors to 14rpm, about 4rpm less than what will be needed for liftoff

It's actually a ground effect vehicle, so "liftoff" is a relative term..

The team at around lunchtime however decided some heavier duty tweaks were needed after three test runs however, so it's back to the shop for some adjustments before another attempt at 3pm in College Park, Maryland today.

While several others have accomplished a human-powered liftoff, there is as of yet no official record, according to NAA official Kristan Maynard here at the Comcast centre's volleyball court, the temporary location for the Maryland flight test team.

Maynard says today won't be an official attempt at potentially two records (one to become airborne; a second unclaimed record involves hovering for a certain amount of time) he hasn't yet mapped out the test area as teh rules require the vehicle to stay within a 10m square. Hopefully we'll have an update late today...