A human powered ornithopter little like Leonardo’s 15th c. imagining, but in this case real, may be a grandiose stunt but it is a terrific story – much better than equally useless solar-powered cars. In Canada yesterday news broke that a student at the University of Toronto had climbed into the spindly framework around a seat, start pedaling, and keep a set of wings about 100 feet tip to tip wriggling with sufficient power to travel 145 meters in a little under 20 seconds. The flight was in August, but only now is the team getting around to telling the world.
Looking at datelines, it looks like, at PostMedia, Linda Nguyen got the story out first and with the right quote in the fourth paragraph (taken from the press release): the feat is not to lead to practical human powered airplanes but “to act as an inspiration to others to … follow their dreams.”
Videos show a tow rope and a small car in front. One presumes that’s hooked up only long enough to get it up to takeoff speed, with the pilot providing the power to sustain the flight. Still, that boosted start takes some of the fun out of this news.
Other stories:
- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (blog) Mark Johnson: Man imitates bird for almost 20 seconds in first sustained flight to feature flapping wings ; With links to a video.
- LiveScience – Charles Q. Choi: Human-Powered Aircraft Flaps Wings in Flying First ; As an aid to us American readers, he gives all units in both metric and English versions. And Charles Q. tipped the tracker off to this aeronautical news too, thank you very much.
- Toronto Star – Debra Black, Kate Allen: Bird-plane a flying first ;
Grist for the Mill: U. of Toronto Press Release (via ScienceDaily) ;
– Charlie Petit
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