Crazy-fast human-powered vehicle sets new world speed record

The team set the record yesterday, but the event in Nevada isn’t over yet, so that top speed could still be eclipsed.

What’s most impressive about AeroVelo’s world record is the fact this isn’t the first time the team has earned such a distinction. AeroVelo, a three-year-old Toronto-based design firm whose partners include Google and the University of Toronto, broke the 200-meter men’s record with a speed of 85.71 miles per hour.

The world’s fastest human, Dr. Todd Reichert (center), with AeroVelo co-founder, Cameron Robertson (second from right), and the rest of the team posing with their world record setting speedbike Eta at the 2015 World Human Powered Speed Challenge in Battle Mountain, Nevada. In 2011, its Vortex bicycle achieved a speed of 72.6 miles per hour (116.9 km/h), a new land speed record for college-built and college-piloted vehicles. In 2013, the company made a human-powered helicopter which maintained a successful flight for one minute and they won the Sikorsky Prize.

Dubbed Eta – a Greek reference to efficiency as it relates to engineering – AeroVelo’s main focus was to build a completely aerodynamic shell around the bike and its rider.

The Eta, which is an update to AeroVelo’s 2012 bike named the Bluenose, has the pilot sitting in a recumbent position with the legs in front.

So with this considerable momentum behind it, AeroVelo set about crafting a vehicle capable of propelling it even further into the record books.

AeroVelo faced a challenge on race day itself, as the Eta toppled over upon its launch on the first heat to cause damages on the front fairing. However, while their vehicle did not reach its fullest alleged potential, it still passed over the previous record and the team snagged another award.

Nick was born outside of Melbourne, Australia, with a general curiosity that has drawn him to some distant (and very cold) places. Having worked for publications such as The Santiago Times and The Conversation, he now writes for Gizmag from Melbourne, excited by tech and all forms of innovation, the city’s weird weather and curried egg sandwiches.