Posted on 03/21/2012 11:39:33 AM PDT by JoeProBono
THE HAGUE, Netherlands, -- A Dutch man said he completed a flight of about 330 feet using homemade wings based on those of a bird.
Jarno Smeets, 31, an engineer, said he controlled the 55-foot wings using two Nintendo Wii controllers, the accelerometers from an HTC Wildfire S smartphone and Turnigy motors when he took off Sunday at a park in The Hague and flew for about a minute.
"Ever since I was a little boy I have been inspired by pioneers like Otto Lilienthal, Leonardo da Vinci and also my own grandfather," Smeets said.
Smeets has been chronicling his progress on the Human Bird Wings project on YouTube.
Saw that on the news this morning.
Awesome! I want a pair of those.
Thanks.
So, he really flapped his way into the sky with wings? Pretty awesome. The real Flying Dutchman.
Just beautiful! Incredible!
Pause the video at 20 seconds...and look at the back of his legs...you see nothing but his cream colored pants. Freeze again at 25 seconds...and see the same thing.
Freeze at 37 seconds, and you see that he’s suddenly got a colorful ‘tail; drapped over his legs. Where did that come from?
Between 40 sec and 44 sec, his legs go way back, almost how a parachutist arches his back when in free-fall. Try to do this on a chair...while flapping your arms.
Around the 1:05 mark, the ‘tail’ is gone again.
Up to the 30 second mark, the man and his wings have a shadow.
At 31 sec, somebody’s shoulder blocks the camera’s view of the shadow.
At 32 sec, the shoulder is gone, and so is the shadow...and the picture is suddenly blurry.
Pause the video at 20 seconds...and look at the back of his legs...you see nothing but his cream colored pants. Freeze again at 25 seconds...and see the same thing.
Freeze at 37 seconds, and you see that he’s suddenly got a colorful ‘tail; drapped over his legs. Where did that come from?
Between 40 sec and 44 sec, his legs go way back, almost how a parachutist arches his back when in free-fall. Try to do this on a chair...while flapping your arms.
Around the 1:05 mark, the ‘tail’ is gone again.
Up to the 30 second mark, the man and his wings have a shadow.
At 31 sec, somebody’s shoulder blocks the camera’s view of the shadow.
At 32 sec, the shoulder is gone, and so is the shadow...and the picture is suddenly blurry.
Very interesting device.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIfY-GdWi7M&feature=player_embedded
Up in the air, Junior Birdman,
Flying so high off the ground,
Is it a bird, plane or Superman?
No! It’s Junior Birdman upside down.
The 'tail' is visible while he is running for his takeoff. I can see it flapping back and forth as he is running.
Fake, according to some CGI experts at Industrial Light and Magic.
http://gizmodo.com/5895235/cgi-experts-say-flying-bird-man-is-fake
The fake-or-not battle is really raging on this one all over the internet. I’m leaning heavily towards hoax. Just doesn’t look right to me.
Fake
One of my hobbies is electric-powered radio control model airplanes, so I'm familiar with the Turnigy motors he's using.
The motors seen in the blog video produce only about 4-5 HP and do not have the torque to move those large wings fast enough to carry a human being.
Here's a link to the video where he 'demonstrates' the mechanism, which is being held by some woman. (See: Moving wingssystem with Wii controller | part 9/14)
Even this one looks faked.
Yeah. I was just thinking of that Rocket Man thing that was getting rotation a few years ago. What ever became of that? Were we all fooled?
Yes, feathers.
Feathers rotate during upwards wing flaps, to make them have little air resistance, and on the down-flap, they lock together to achieve maximum air resistance.
Not even a bird would be able to fly with this guy's design.
Question...
How is he horizontal in the air. There isn’t enough air flow over his body to create that position .
He would have to do it with his back muscles, very tiring.
Call me skeptical.
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