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[Korey]

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/03/human-bird-wings/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYW5G2kbrKk

Using videogame controllers, an Android phone and custom-built wings, a Dutch engineer named Jarno Smeets has achieved birdlike flight.

Smeets flew like an albatross, the bird that inspired his winged-man invention, on March 18 at a park in The Hague.

“I have always dreamed about this. But after 8 months of hard work, research and testing it all payed off,” Smeets said on his YouTube page.

Smeets got the idea from sketches of a futuristic flying bicycle drawn by his grandfather, who spent much of his life designing the contraption but never actually built it.

When Smeets began studying engineering at Coventry University in England, he realized the physics of a flying bicycle just didn’t pan out. Instead, he drew inspiration from Leonardo da Vinci’s wing drawings to build his flying machine. Along with neuromechanics expert Bert Otten, Smeets brought his design into reality

Spoiler

Note: This could be fake but it's on Wired.

There's an article about him in the German Financial Times
http://www.ftd.de/lifestyle/outofoffice/:out-of-office-der-fliegende-hollaender/70003205.html

 

[Stinkles]

I am waiting for Snopes on this one, TBH. There are loads of weird things in the video.

 

[Princess Carl]

Looks pretty fake

Edit: screw you OWV! (put terminal in H4 and i'll forget bout it)

 

[derder]

Patent that shiz

 

[SCULLIBUNDO]

 

[bengraven]

Considering the dozens, if not hundreds of deaths in the last few centuries from people that have attempted this, I can't imagine how scary it must be to try this.

Then again, the participant looks cocky enough that those odds are likely farthest from his minds.

 

[crazy monkey]

fake from the looks of it.

 

[Door2Dawn]

Thats Morgan Freeman alright.

 

[Xeke]

BS human arms aren't strong enough.

 

[Angelus Errare]

Call me weird, but when I was a kid, I always thought we as humans fly with man made wings, and the only reason why it hadn't worked was because

1. The wings weren't long enough proportional to our body (I mean pretty much all failures were using arm length wings which made no sense to me).

2. The material used wasn't good enough to push off the surrounding air for lack of a better word.

stealth edit: and 3. What Xeke said.

Fake but still cool to dream.

 

[EvetS]

So fake.

 

[Count Dookkake]

BS human arms aren't strong enough.

Pecs are the real problem.

You'd need to look like that Liefield Cap.

 

[Princess Carl]

How does this even make it to wired? smh

 

[LiveFromKyoto]

Pecs are the real problem.

You'd need to look like that Liefield Cap.

But then one side would be so much stronger it would flip you over every time.

 

[Xeke]

Pecs are the real problem.

You'd need to look like that Liefield Cap.

True. The strength to weight ratio would have to be ridiculous.

 

[2th]

calling bullshit

 

[la flama blanca]

I berreeeeevvv

 

[mattiewheels]

Calling bullshit on that name too, Jarno Smeets sounds like a star wars name or something.

 

[LiveFromKyoto]

Calling bullshit on that name too, Jarno Smeets sounds like a star wars name or something.

And while we're at it, is Dutch even a country? Google Earth says no.

 

[Count Dookkake]

True. The strength to weight ratio would have to be ridiculous.

I remember seeing an exhibit about flight at some children's museum when I was a kid. They had this set up where you could flap these big bird wings. IIRC, it said your pecs would have to be something like 60% of your body mass in order to get off the ground.

 

[la flama blanca]

:30 seconds in, shadow, no shadow. Bullsheeeet.

 

[Flatline]

If it's not fake which I doubt, the person who edited the video is completely stupid. But I'm quite sure it is so the editing makes sense.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Is this done by the same guys who did the "run on water" video?

 

[SCULLIBUNDO]

And while we're at it, is Dutch even a country? Google Earth says no.

This got me.

 

[luoapp]

I think it's real. It's not him but two electrical motors are the power source, and those flapping-wing plane are fairly common these days. It's a scale-up, not that out of ordinary.

"According to Smeets calculations, he needed approximately 2,000 Watts of continuous power to support his roughly 180-pound frame and 40-pound wing pack. His arms could only really provide 5 percent of that, so the rest would have to come from motors."

 

[Derwind]

And while we're at it, is Dutch even a country? Google Earth says no.

I know you're probably joking but I'm pretty sure he's from the Netherlands.

 

[Fantastical]

I'm a little embarrassed I believed this the first time I watched it. I'm always that person that walks by my family or friends watching some video and tells them "You know that's fake, right?" What can I say? I'm a Debbie Downer.

 

[Shorty]

Is it fake though? There's an article about him in the German Financial Times
http://www.ftd.de/lifestyle/outofoffice/:out-of-office-der-fliegende-hollaender/70003205.html

He addresses the weak pecs issue: It says theres lightweight engines built into the wings. He also used motion sensors of from wiimotes :O

 

[Korey]

I know you're probably joking but I'm pretty sure he's from the Netherlands.

"Using videogame controllers, an Android phone and custom-built wings, a Dutch engineer named Jarno Smeets has achieved birdlike flight."

 

[speculawyer]

You can see how little pressure there is on those wings as they are flapping loosely all around. There is no pressure on them that would support a person.

 

[Slayer-33]

Oh wow.

 

[BakedPigeon]

no way this is real

 

[NomarTyme]

lol, I give it a thumbs up for effort...

 

[Fantastical]

I think it's real. It's not him but two electrical motors are the power source, and those flapping-wing plane are fairly common these days. It's a scale-up, not that out of ordinary.

"According to Smeets calculations, he needed approximately 2,000 Watts of continuous power to support his roughly 180-pound frame and 40-pound wing pack. His arms could only really provide 5 percent of that, so the rest would have to come from motors."

00:34-:40. Looks really fake to me.

 

[Ronald_mcd]

When you see it from behind it looks ok, but when he started going up in the air flapping it looked pretty bad.

 

[speculawyer]

I know you're probably joking but I'm pretty sure he's from the Netherlands.

You can't trick me. That is that make-believe place where Peter Pan and Tinkerbell come from.

 

[crimzonflame]

You can tell its fake just by listening to the music.

 

[Bay Maximus]

This is so real it's not even funny.

No, but but seriously if it's real I'll take 2 sets please and thank you.

 

[FantasticMrFoxdie]

bwahaha someone needs to gif the flapping part.


i give this a D minus.

 

[Ecotic]

They really shouldn't have zoomed in right during takeoff. Makes me think "shaky cam" was camouflaging the fakeness.

But I don't know anything about video editing or whatever, I want to believe. I hope it's true.

 

[CliqWriter]

Came all happy and excited, then I saw the video

 

[TeegsD]

I want to believe that this works

 

[Korey]

Spoilered the fake warning as to not ruin it for people who want to see the video first and believe.

 

[Derwind]

"Using videogame controllers, an Android phone and custom-built wings, a Dutch engineer named Jarno Smeets has achieved birdlike flight."

Not everyone has an easy time pronouncing "Nederlander" or "Niederländer"... which is probably the more correct way of refer to them... For English speaking people(including myself) the word "Dutch" rolls off the tongue better I guess, even though it is incorrect. /shrug

 

[Verelios]

If this is true, when can we expect mass production?

 

[Fantastical]

Spoilered the fake warning as to not ruin it for people who want to see the video first and believe.

I will never understand this.

 

[Roofy]

if you're a doubter please actually read the wired story, not just the thread

 

[Beaulieu]

looks legit to me

if you're a doubter please actually read the wired story, not just the thread

for real

 

[Purkake4]

He never asked for that

 

[Exclamation-One]

This is TOTALLY real! Amazing!

I can't believe it's not available in 720p! Also, it's too bad they shot it with such a low-end camera, didn't use a tripod, and frequently cut away from extended shots. Oh well, I guess all of their money went to making the wings work.



Edit: The last video (14/14) actually is in 720p. Still looks fake, and most definitely blurry.