Science/Medicine : Human-Powered Hydrofoil

Engineers have developed a new human-powered hydrofoil that speeds through the water powered by a propeller pedaled like a bicycle and may be used in a bid to set a world record.

The prototype craft has already undergone extensive testing and could be ready to attempt to set a world speed mark by the end of the summer, said Arthur G. Erdman, a mechanical engineering professor at the University of Minnesota.

“We will shoot for breaking the world record,” said Erdman before describing the craft at a meeting of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in Boston last week.

The existing record of 13.68 m.p.h. was set in June, 1984, in Lucerne, Switzerland, by the Flying Fish II.

The new craft, weighing less than 50 pounds, looks like a bicycle welded to a frame attached to two plastic-coated Styrofoam floats. The rectangular floats, which are 4 inches wide, 6 inches deep and 7 feet long, are on either side of the bicycle frame and keep the craft afloat when it is not moving.