Fast-forwarding to modern times, the heyday of the human-powered flight is far from over. Lucrative prizes still abound for rotor-driven craft, whilst experimental versions of helicopters and ornithopters (flying machines with flapping, bird-like wings) are
both on the drawing board and leaping off it with great abandon. The dream of human-powered flight has been an official reality now
for more than 50 years, but the limits of their ingenuity are boundless - especially when inventors and engineers are spurred on by
prizes as large as the $250,000 on offer from the American Helicopter Society's Igor Sikorsky Prize Fund. And who knows, perhaps
one day his commute to work will take place not on a bicycle but on a bicycle-powered craft. Does your office have a landing pad on
the roof or a runway nearby? The day when she does might just be closer than they think!