Meanwhile, the US Forest Service has been deriving cellulose nanocrystals from wood pulp extract to create a material that's stronger than Kevlar and carbon fiber.
"Today we have materials like Kevlar and carbon fiber in tires that can handle the speed capabilities of these vehicles, " said Matt Edmonds, vice-president of TireRack.com, a tire retailing Website.
Each one is handbuilt out of sheets of lightweight balsa wood sandwiched between layers of carbon fiber or Kevlar and baked in an oven at 100C for stiffness.
This time, they used exotic materials to lower its weight, which included the then-new technique of creating carbon fiber tubes, and Kevlar -- a first for a Human Powered Aircraft (HPA).