Unbelievable!
A human-powered helicopter has been invented, built and flown by a team of Canadians! Don’t expect to be commuting in one any time soon, but the concept has been proven.
This occurred because in 1980, the American Helicopter Society Igor I. Sikorsky prize of almost $250,000 was offered to anyone who flew a human-powered helicoptor to a height of three meters and hovered there for at least one minute. That might not seem like much, but it took 33 years to get the job done.
Prizes have contributed greatly to aviation. Lindbergh’s flight won the $25,000 Orteig Prize. In the last few years, space flights have won prizes of millions of dollars.
Winner-take-all prizes tend to stir up more effort, ingenuity and creativity than the amount of the prize itself.
But, compare that to the way our guvmint tries to get things done. Often, the guvmint chooses the company the guvmint thinks can do the job, then gives them the prize in advance. More likely than not, the guvmint is wrong.
Remember Solyndra? The guvmint “loaned” the company over half a billion dollars of our money to save the world through solar energy. Solyndra went broke.
Recently, the guvmint did it again. Have you ever heard of the Fisker electric car? The guvmint loaned them over half a billion dollars too — the guvmint seems to like that figure. Fisker produced a handful of cars then it, too, fell on hard times. I’ve read that we taxpayers lost hundreds of thousands of dollars per car produced.
The free market offers a huge prize — after the fact — to winners. The guvmint does it backwards and it doesn’t get results.
About the Author
Ralph Hood
Certified Speaking Professional
Ralph Hood is a Certified Speaking Professional who has addressed aviation groups throughout North America. A pilot since 1969, he's insured and sold airplanes at retail and distributor levels and taught aviation management for Southern Illinois University.
Ralph Hood is also an award-winning columnist (he writes for several publications), a salesman and sales manager (he sold airplanes, for crying out loud!), a teacher (he taught college-level aviation management) and a professional public speaker who has entertained and enlightened audiences from Hawaii to Spain, and from Fairbanks to Puerto Rico.
- Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), National Speakers Association
- Past member, National Ethics Committee, National Speakers Association
- Past president of Alabama Speakers Association
- Member, Alabama Aviation Hall of Fame
- Past National Marketing Mentor, AOPA Project Pilot