Man Flies Like A Bird Flapping His Own Wings..

The flight itself is not as impressive as it may seem, given a bit of a headwind and or a very slight incline; running and gliding close to that height and distance might be possible without any flapping or motors. My guess is that the motors are in fact helping, but that 10 hp would likely have made such a glider go much further by using conventional propellers. The battery packs the guy is using may also not last more than a few minutes--but we don't see how many he has on him.

The device is also something that is only possible in recent times, given proliferation of these types of high torque, high power density brushless motors, high voltage speed controllers and lithium batteries, off the shelf carbon fiber components and so on. I like that the attempt and could see such a design mainly being used as a relatively quiet and compact way of hang gliding. I could also see being able to stay up in the air a bit longer by having the ability to move forward into helpful currents--much like large soaring birds do. These guys could likely improve performance at some point by having hollow wings, which can be done at similar weight but without losses associated with loose fabric.

That is for the paranoid who will not click external links..

www.tested.com...

See, this is not human powered flight..

Jamie is not impressed

Originally posted by tallcool1

Originally posted by DISINFORMANT
I love the ignore button.

Right. Then you don't have to put up with people making valid points and responding to a legitimate response with the silly little "sprouting wings" comment. Are you really not understanding the point or are you purposely acting infantile about this? So the guy pointlessly flaps his wings, but that's not why he is flying. That's what the motors are doing. The thread title implies human powered flight. If you don't understand this simple concept, then I am truly sorry for you.

Correct. It means I don't have to put up with people trollingt my threads. And see how with just the threat of using the ignore button, these people suddenly vanished from the thread. Interesting how that works.

As for the "pointlessly flapping his wings".. If you didn't catch that part, his arm-flapping actually controls the motors that drive the wings. Flap-for-flap.

Also I'll say again; nobody has made the claim that this is "human-powered flight". If you made that assumption, it's your own fault. Even more of an assumption than to assume that I implied he actually had grown wings.

Most people can understand this.

Originally posted by Jeroenske
On the video posted earlier called Testflight with wings made from a kite | 13/14

1:50 to 1:53 Yeah lets cut to CGI here while the camera is pointing down at nothing.
2:21 to 2:28 Ok lets do the exact same cut back to REAL footage here.

FAKE and probably an April's fool hoax.

An April fools joke, posted mid March..

reply to post by popsmayhem

The video of Jarno Smeets' flight is cool, and I don't see evidence that it was faked. It seems reasonable to accomplish,

I like that the attempt and could see such a design mainly being used as a relatively quiet and compact way of hang gliding. I could also see being able to stay up in the air a bit longer by having the ability to move forward into helpful currents--much like large soaring birds do.

www.tested.com... hanics-of-assisted-human-flight/


Anybody can pick and choose quotes.

Originally posted by DISINFORMANT

Originally posted by Jeroenske
On the video posted earlier called Testflight with wings made from a kite | 13/14

1:50 to 1:53 Yeah lets cut to CGI here while the camera is pointing down at nothing.
2:21 to 2:28 Ok lets do the exact same cut back to REAL footage here.

FAKE and probably an April's fool hoax.

An April fools joke, posted mid March..

We have kind of a history of elaborate and early April fools day jokes in Holland.

Originally posted by DISINFORMANT
reply to post by popsmayhem

 

The video of Jarno Smeets' flight is cool, and I don't see evidence that it was faked. It seems reasonable to accomplish,

I like that the attempt and could see such a design mainly being used as a relatively quiet and compact way of hang gliding. I could also see being able to stay up in the air a bit longer by having the ability to move forward into helpful currents--much like large soaring birds do.

www.tested.com... hanics-of-assisted-human-flight/


Anybody can pick and choose quotes.

edit on 3/20/2012 by DISINFORMANT because: (no reason given)

I am with you op.

Just saying, when people first see and read this
they are assuming it is human powered.
Just for the other folks who are going to
read this know...

It is still cool the guy built and designed this himself
in a back yard.

reply to post by Jeroenske


I'll take your word for that, as I've never been to Holland. But if it is fake, He's fooling an awful lot of tech-savvy people..

reply to post by popsmayhem


No you're not. But you're right. People will assume whatever they want. I've done my part here.

Originally posted by DISINFORMANT
reply to post by popsmayhem

 

No you're not. But you're right. People will assume whatever they want. I've done my part here.

Come on OP, it is a bit
misleading. That is why people think
it is fake because they are under the impression
this guy just built some wings and took off

Awesome thread!

Looks pretty real to me. It reminds me of this:



re-inventing old stuff?

reply to post by tallcool1


How did I call you a name if I never posted directly to you?
It was a general post. You made it personal by posting to me.
And name calling. Then threw a temper tantrum and said I threw one.
Ah hypocrisy . It's all there for those who want to follow this nonsense.

The statement that follows is general
and in no way applies directly to anyone, not even cynical punks:

A common flaw in debunkery is to jump to the conclusion,
without evidence, that the subject is a hoax. This is the same
thing debunkers attack the lowly gullible for, except in reverse.
I believe this thread illustrates this problem well.

If fake footage is used even once (which it is in 13/14), then ones integrity and credibility is immediately tarnished, why would they use CGI in something thats supposed to be purely documentation?


My biggest issue at the moment is the camera angles, as he takes a run up you can see one single person possibly a female standing near the lake, he then continues to run passed her then all of a sudden out of nowhere theres a camera angle taking a shot perpendicular, if not slightly ahead of "Birdmans" take off

So why can we not see this person during the run up?

I call hoax. As others have posted already, the mechanism being used flaps his wings up and down; a movement that would ultimately stunt lift. Take a look at these three clips. One of an owl in flight, the other of a man rowing a boat, the last of geese achieving flight.

Notice how the wings contort to reduce drag...



Now take a look at this guy sculling down the river. Notice how he twists the oar handles to reduce drag across the water...



Even if this guy's wings did twist properly, I would think he'd need a much deeper flap to achieve lift.
Notice how the wings nearly wrap around these geese like an embrace.

reply to post by DISINFORMANT

You must not have watched the video we're discussing...

touche. hmm...the video i clicked on isn't there anymore. he was in a field running, jumped, went about 10 feet, then landed again. it wasn't at the top of the page, but on the right side half way down.

birds do more than just flap up and down. i don't think those wings could allow flight like what is shown.

Read what the experts are saying (from the OP article);

I'm an Airline pilot with 25 years Airline experience, 7 years Air Force experience, 8 years kiteboarding experience and a background in aeronautical engineering. It's a fake. Just look at the wings. They're not showing load at any time. The fabric from the old kiteboarding kite—that's what the wings are made of—never loads up. If the wings were producing lift, the fabric would be tight, it would look like it was inflated. It never does. There are other signs too, but it doesn't matter. Since the wings aren't loaded, they aren't producing lift. Not even the glide is real. It isn't a matter of opinion. It's simple fact. If the wings aren't producing lift, this has to be a fake. Period. If the wings were producing lift, they would show that they were under load. They never show a load, so they never produce lift.

As a hang glider pilot, I can tell you that this is not real. Not even close. The roll stability and pitch stability mechanisms are not present to fly. It takes 10hp for these to have powered flight and with that they can't climb nearly as fast as that guy.

I've been flying hang gliders for 33 years, a Master Hang Glider Pilot for 23 years, past president of the United States Hang Gliding Association and a Gold Medal winner at the 2000 World Championships. To take the time to try to explain to you why this is so obvious to those of us who fly a nearly identical machine (that just doesn't flap) that this is a fake would possibly just be too involved. Instead, take a minute and look at a few things that are just obvious to a casual viewer. Why would the people run away from the machine just before he tries to take off? Why is the guy running at the camera blocking the view of the pilot? Note after he gets airborne, his feet are behind him like superman. As a guy whose spent a couple of thousand hours hanging from a hang glider, I can tell you that you have to have a mechanism to hold your feet up like that.

Did you even read you own article OP ?

Ok so why Is flight un-feasible for humans. Theoretically couldn't you take video, and x-rays of birds taking off flying, and landing, then through ultra light materials, small batteries, motors, and servo motors, create a human scaled replica of a birds wings. Then throw on the new paper thin solar panels, and have it all hooked up to your phone app that controls the altitude, wind direction, and necessity of wing flaps. Also have an algorithm that adds the mass of the occupant and the device, and calculates the necessary speed to attain flight. Would that idea work?

reply to post by DISINFORMANT


I just flew in from Dallas and boy are my arms tired. Only bad part is it looks like hes exhausted flying 300 ft or so but guess its good excersize.

Originally posted by FugitiveSoul
I call hoax. As others have posted already, the mechanism being used flaps his wings up and down; a movement that would ultimately stunt lift.

No, no and no. Simply not true. I have several R/C ornithopters and they fly great with nothing more than up and down movement. Here, see for yourself:



I'm not saying this verifies that the vid in the OP is legit, personally I can't imagine it is legit because humans are too heavy and it results in a very unfavorable power-to-weight ratio. But all this talk in this thread that flight is impossible with up and down movement only is verifiably untrue.

I just did some reading on this guy's web site and still am not convinced that it's not a hoax, but it's quite clear that even if it isn't he is not flapping under his own power. Basically he's strapping himself into a powered ornithopter. See the system diagram here:

www.humanbirdwings.net...

Notice that it references brushless motors, li-po batteries and ESCs (electronic speed controls). This is all standard equipment for R/C ornithopters. Since I'm heavily involved in R/C I can say that I've been aware of people who have been taking R/C orni designs and blowing them up to larger sizes to attempt powered flight like this, so even if this is a hoax it is likely that someone will be successful with it soon due to the huge advances in brushless motor and battery technology we've seen in the last few years. A woman named Patricia Jones-Bowman has been working on designs for years with the eventual goal of sustained flapping flight, her web site is here. I believe she has had a few successful hops (which is basically what the person in the OP's video did), but not sustained flight yet.

Basically the OP's version could just a bigger version of something like this:



The above is actually an older design, it's got an 8-1/2 foot wingspan and is electric. I've talked to the guy that is in the video (he's since sold this orni) and he said that some of the launchers have reported that just before liftoff they were getting very light on their feet, so even in this size it's nearly enough to lift a person. Double or triple the size and you could conceivably fly under one.

I also build and fly multi-rotor R/C craft and in the last few years Wii remote components have become popular for flight control systems (see www.multiwii.com... for more info). So his mention of using Wii components as part of his flight control system seems plausible.

Here's another example of human flight that involved adaptation of R/C hobby motors and batteries, this would not have been possible a year or two ago but it shows how far hobby-grade equipment has progressed:

Originally posted by sealing
Geez, what dismissive cynical punks we have become on ATS.
Great thread awesome find S&F.

Absolutely legitimate and actually naysayers,
a really big deal. Awesome OP, thank you.

This is gonna be huge.

edit on 20-3-2012 by sealing because: (no reason given)

edit on 20-3-2012 by sealing because: ad info

If you can't spot CGI in this video, then i have nothing else to say as all hope is lost for you
It is so blatantly obvious.

Man's physical make-up didn't evolve into something capable of flight, it is virtually impossible, we are too heavy and our muscles aren't strong enough, letalone being aerodynamic in build.

If you believe this is real....... w-o-w.