A team of engineering students from the University of Sherbrooke is running a Kickstarter campaign to fund their new hydrofoil system. Their vehicle, codenamed Project Leviathan, wants to build the one man human powered watercraft that will break the current speed record.
The current record is held by MIT, according to the rules and regulations governed by the Human Powered Vehicle Association. Leviathan is designed to hit a top speed of 37 kilometers per hour, easily beating the current record of 34 kilometers per hour.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1269353040/help-us-break-a-speed-world-record
Unveiling for this next generation of Leviathan will be held in early December at the University of Sherbrooke. Gabriel Denis from the project says that the team is targeting summer 2015 to attempt their record breaking run.
A human cyclist is the power source for the machine. As the cyclist pedals a chain transmits the power to the craft's propeller. At lower speeds the craft is designed to float on two hulls like a catamaran.
When the Leviathan starts to gain speed two hydrofoils engage and give the craft better stability and speed. The team hopes that some new technologies will help them to more efficiently transfer power to the propeller and gain greater speed.
Different mechanisms give adjustment capabilities to the hydrofoil and hulls that will hopefully give incremental bonuses to the final tally. Sensors on the frame work with servo motors to give the structure a more precisely controlled stability.
This round of funding for Leviathan is already completely secured. The modest $2,000 goal has already been tripled and the $7,500 and $10,000 stretch goals will allow the team to build aluminum molds and carbon monocoque components for the watercraft.
Leviathan is an amazing project and it will be exciting to see how the team does on this record attempt. To build a project meant to be as fast as possible but also to beat the current world record is a great engineering goal.
The Kickstarter campaign is very well done and feels professional while still having the appearance of being a student project. The entire campaign video is done in french with english captions, and that technique works very well to transmit the information to the non-french speakers who presumably make up most of the Kickstarter funding base.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1269353040/help-us-break-a-speed-world-record