Man FLIES with Android-powered homemade bird wings

A Dutch bloke has taken to the air by flapping his arms, proving that humans can fly with the right technology, plenty of time and friends to help with the build. Jarno Smeets flew using wings of his own design, built over the course of a year, and managed to spend a decent minute in the air – longer than the Wright Brothers …

[JDX]

How lovely.

[EddieD]

Bloody Dutchies...

...always smoking something...

Seriously impressive though, even with augmentation.

[thefutureboy]

Top Flying!

How seriously cool is that!

[thefutureboy]

Re: Top Flying!

Hmmmmm, have I been duped then? Looks likely... :-(

[Miek]

Re: Top Flying!

If you understand Dutch or read the subtitles you will note it was a "Fücking marvellous moment"

[Anonymous Coward]

Danger Will Robinson!

There's something not quite right here, my spider sense is tingling. Something looks wrong in that video, which does make me wonder.

I don't have time to de-construct it right now, because I have some equally barking paid w**k to do (and shouldn't be posting, I suppose), but I am sure others will do the job more than adequately. Am I being cynical?

[Shades]

Can you tell...

...from the pixels??

[Jodo Kast]

Re: Danger Will Robinson!

Are you cynical? No, you are trolling and you know you are trolling.

In fact, there is so much trolling regarding this story, that it's great to see!

Jealous, I guess?

[Packet]

this is just bloody amazing

[TRT]

Needs...

catapult launch assistance. But watch out for that flimsy looking building housing pigs.

[Anonymous Coward]

Typical...

You've just washed and polished your car when some bloody birdman does a poop on it.

[Tom_]

Just because I can see it...

...doesn't mean I have to believe it.

I think this is bollocks. :)

[Ralph B]

Fake

I call "fake".

[Vladimir Plouzhnikov]

Frack me!

Somehow listening to Procol's "Ramblin On" will never feel the same again...

[Anonymous Coward]

Cool...

so, his grandpa sketched the Wii controllers?

[Miek]

Nice landing

[nichobe]

hmmmmm

Does research happen before articles are written?

http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/03/21/human-birdwings-and-beyond-5-of-the-latest-hoaxes-the-web-has-to-offer/

[Jodo Kast]

Re: hmmmmm

I don't think "checking other websites" is considered research.

[Johan Bastiaansen]

Re: hmmmmm

That depends.

I'm sure that not checking other websites definitely can't be considered research.

[NoneSuch]

Couldn't have been an android. I didn't see a pop-up ad halfway through.

[hplasm]

Not an iThing-

His wings would have melted...

[Tom Maddox]

Re: Not an iThing-

iCarus?

[KirstarK]

Something wrong with that TBH

I will believe it when I see it in person

[gribbler]

You're a cynical bunch

If it is a fake then it's a pretty elaborate one. He's been featured in the German FT, got videos, blogs etc going back over 6 months and really spent a lot of time creating content and documentation.

[Ru]

Suspicious Physics sense... tingling!

One might consider if it were that easy to get airborne with something you could build cheaply and carry on your back, light aircraft travel would be a wee bit cheaper.

Ever see all the stuff you need to get a microlight in the air? Not to mention the amount of support required to keep the wing shape. Guess I'll still have to wait a year or two for my Blue Mars style wingsuit.

[nematoad]

Might expect a call.

I think this man might soon get a call from Ryanair.

After all if they can reduce the size of the fuel bill you can bet that they WILL take a look at this.

Probably need a holiday to get over the flight though.

[thomas k.]

amazing

what the human spirit and human ingenuity can accomplsih. nicely done, dutch persons!

[jubtastic1]

How could you not notice those pixels?

To be fair, I have seen a lot of 'shops in my time but there are schoolboy errors in this viral, they stand out like quad tracks in the grass.

[jai]

friend of mine also agrees that it's a fake:

"On the 13/14 video of his you can see around 1.30 there is a sun design on the right hand wing, then the camera looks down, then looks up again. The sun design has a large dot that wasn't there before. Very clear and obvious evidence of digital manipulation on at least one of the videos for sure."

[Winkypop]

Hmmmmm

Colour me skeptical, but I'd be happy to be wrong.

[NedSeagoon]

...and so runs the legend of the

Flying Dutchman!

[Chris Tierney]

Viral video nonsense sponsored by Philips.

Yes that right folks- its CGI augmented with a guy that has a fake facebook profile.

This should help those who think its real.

http://i39.tinypic.com/214s2z7.jpg

Plus he's been uploading videos for over a year on this project and his first one was titled 1 of 14.

How did he know he was going to make 14 videos before his first successful flight unless he had a friggin time machine.

[Anonymous Coward]

Giveaway for me

is how the wing panels are flopping around randomly during the 'flaps' and at the end when it's supposed to be gliding. Those wings are doing no lifting whatsoever. Anyone's who's familiar with a sailing boat or a hang-glider should spot that a mile off. But yes, the lack of actual batteries, motors and the feeble flapping rate is a big clue from the off.

[Anonymous Coward]

Fake but it doesn't have to be...

Jem Stansfield from BBC's Bang Goes The Theory is Making a peddle powered aircraft as I type.. you'll just have to wait for the end of series episode.

[Norman Hartnell]

Re: Fake but it doesn't have to be...

Give that man a meddle!

[TheRealRoland]

Re: Fake but it doesn't have to be...

If it wasn't for those medalsome kids at ElReg, he would of gotten away with it too ;-)

Yes, on porpoise.

[Graham Bartlett]

Re: Fake but it doesn't have to be...

Oh yes it does. Flapping simply doesn't scale up. Mute swans are pushing the limits of self-powered takeoff (anyone who's seen them getting airborne can testify to that), and they're only a quarter the weight of a human. The largest (now-extinct) bird ever was about the weight of a human, but it almost certainly couldn't take off under its own power alone - it needed a good strong headwind and/or a nice slope.

BTW, the Gossamer Condor is 35 years old this year. Nice to hear that Jem is having a crack at doing this again, but it's really not a new trick. And it demonstrates that if you want to do a human-powered aircraft, the only muscles with the necessary oomph are your legs

[Peter Ford]

Re: Fake but it doesn't have to be...

They even flew one across the English Channel (Gossamer Albatross, I think?) - thought that may have been a two-person-powered thingy - need to look it up

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Fake but it doesn't have to be...

Graham Take a look at this:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/09/23/pedalo/

[Graham Bartlett]

Re: Fake but it doesn't have to be...

Which doesn't take off under its own power. Which uses leg power. Which has *huge* wings. And the surface of the wings is properly taut (not flapping loose).

[Graham Bartlett]

Re: Fake but it doesn't have to be...

Oh, and which has a proper structural assembly of ribs inside the wings, as required to stop it folding up when it takes the load. Simply bolting ribs onto a windsurfer spar is *not* going to work.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Fake but it doesn't have to be...

Let's hope it's better than the pedal powered jetski (which sank) and the Pykrete boat (which sank).

[asdf]

Re: Fake but it doesn't have to be...

As Pedro told Captain Jim, "I once made a raft out of dead monkeys. It sank."

[stu 4]

clearly bollocks

Surely El Reg you have just posted this story a week early ? I refuse to believe my El Reg is so gullable...

I fly a paramotor: my wing is 29m2. that is about 6 or 7 times the size of these wings.. and I need a 20hp engine with a 1.3m long propeller hanging from my back rotating at 400mph to get off the ground...

It's a bit of fun I suppose, but I do get depressed with stuff like this - that peoples grasp of science seems to terribly basic as to think this is real.

[rg20]

Gullable?

you mean Gullible.

You do realise of course that the word "gullible" is'nt actually in any dictionary !

[Michael H.F. Wilkinson]

Re: Gullable?

page 478, Concise Oxford Dictionary, 6th Edition (and showing its age)

Gullable, I agree is not in that dictionary, though it may be in Ultra-Complete Maximegalon Dictionary of Every Language Ever"

[Kevin Turvey]

Re: Gullable?

LOL,

There's always one !

[Neil Barnes]

Re: clearly bollocks

Yup. I fly a paraglider, and while I can hop on the flat, with a head wind, I for sure can't take off without a slope or a tow line.

And further, it's obvious that there's neither load nor aerodynamic effects on those wings.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: clearly bollocks @stu 4

>It's a bit of fun I suppose, but I do get depressed with stuff like this

You get depressed at people having a bit of fun?

I just hope you don't encounter anything to truly get depressed about.

[frank ly]

Re: clearly bollocks (and gullable)

But it did look like a large gull, so that's ok.

[Tamer Shafik]

I so wanted to believe this...

They said all the right things, Turnigy motors, a bunch of 5000mAh LiPos, Wii accelerometers, arduino, 2000W of motor output - all very plausible. But the video isn't right.

Compared to birds, we have very big, heavy legs. Your legs would inevitably dangle below you. Watch the video. This is what happens during takeoff (35 secs). However, at around 38 secs, the legs magically come up to be inline with the torso. That makes no sense. They then remain in this streamline position until he comes in to land.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I so wanted to believe this...

"the legs magically come up to be inline with the torso. That makes no sense. "

It only makes no sense if you've never seen a hang glider being used.

[Tamer Shafik]

Re: I so wanted to believe this...

I've seen plenty of hang gliders - when hang gliding, you are suspended in a harness, with the harness attached to the frame level with your waist. You aren't lifted by your shoulders.

[Graham Bartlett]

Re: I so wanted to believe this...

You *haven't* seen plenty of hang gliders, otherwise you'd know that the harness is body-length like a sleeping-bag. You push your feet into the sleeping-bag bit which supports your legs, and then your body naturally swings down horizontal. Early harnesses (back in the 1970s) had leg straps to do the same thing, but you won't see many of them today. Only training harnesses don't have support for the legs, and that's to stop newbies forgetting to take their feet out when they're landing.

[a well wisher]

I thought the Netherlands was only an hour ahead of us, but it seems April 1st has come early for them

[Michael H.F. Wilkinson]

Ye cannae break the laws of physics, capt'n!

As Scotty would say. He might well add:

"Powerrr, we need more powerrrr!!"

[nichobe]

Re: hmmmmm

Well Jodo Kast, people often research using the interwebs and then cite said internet articles

http://www.liutilities.com/how-to/cite-internet-article/

When you look at something that you believe isn't quite right you get thinking and poke around until you can find an explanation.. i.e. CGI, thin fishing line from a crane etc..

I would have hoped that a journalist writing an article would have performed even the most basic critical thinking and investigation.... I guess I thought more of El Reg...

[Anonymous Coward]

Way too obvious

People seriously cannot see this is CGI? I would think that:

- the bland slightly wrong colour pallete (the saturation levels are wrong compared to the surroundings)

-the appearently random "defocusing" (which no semidecent camera actually capable of focusing nowadays does)

- the complete lack of a powersource capable of delivering enough force and the way too flimsy wings bending in a totally unrealistic way

- etc

would be more than enough to disprove this as another attempt at either viral marketing or attention whoring.

(I know many people just see it as a: "I can tell by the pixels" response, but one look at that video convinced me it's a CGI fake. You might not believe it, but some people have enough of a trained eye to just tell whether something is real or not)

[robinlawrie]

why on earth would he use wii remotes rather than handholds on the wings?? the only thing that achieves is to decouple his arms from the flapping wings. meaning any muscle power is wasted, he has extra weight and complexity, and (bearing in mind the accuracy of wii remote tech) his wings are highly unlikely to do what he tells them.

seems a lot of publications want this cute idea to be true, but its so obviously bollox on so many levels.

[Clive Galway]

Exactly. Wiimotes would be the last thing you would use - it would frankly be dangerous - twist your wrist the wrong way or drop the wiimote (even with wrist strap) and you could stall one wing and die.

Clearly anything augmenting muscle power would not use wireless input - old school potentiometers etc would be way more reliable and MUCH lighter.

[Anonymous Coward]

Weak viral fake.

A quick calculation with rather generous assumptions (wing area 12 m2, maximum lift coefficient 1.75, total mass 100 kg) gives me a stall speed of about 35 km/h... seems to be doing slightly less to my (pilot-trained) eye.

[Ben 50]

You're ten days too early...

This is about as credible as an Orlowski article.

[Andus McCoatover]

El Reg. questions...

"We do note that there seems no reason for the ground cameras to stay so far away from the intrepid birdman during launch"

Yep, noticed that. I also queried the need for the 'assistants' to run away sharpish - out of camerashot - in the opposite direction to supposed flight. That got me instantly. Plus, ever seen a hang-glider wing flex? I have, and from being strapped underneath it. I had wires from the control bar ("A-frame") to the centre of the wing, and even then the thing flexed.

I thought it was great, but now I'm inclined to call 'fake'. However, I'd love to be proven wrong.

[Anonymous Coward]

Ground check footage.

We need to see it where one single wave of the arms makes the entire thing generate lift right within say oh 5 feet of forward momentum, just like jumping off something slowly. OR running.. you know what I mean.

Anyway, yeah one single swing of the arms and the whole wing needs to be in "LIFT GENERATION MODE" this would utterly kick ass over other's since you can glide after sufficient lift.

I'm a smoker and I think it AINT a HOAX. I bet I could fly too.

[Andus McCoatover]

I'm a smoker and I think it AINT a HOAX. I bet I could fly too.

Depends what you're smoking.....

[Nomedias]

Not gonna judge until he does/doesn't repeat the feat.

Would love it to be true, but fully willing to accept its all fake. In the past I'd immediately dismiss this and move on. Then one day I saw an amusingly church sign (can't remember the details, but I event posted the address). I took a picture and posted it only to have it picked apart by CGI "experts" looking for proof of their assumption I faked it. That caused me to be a little less cynical when it comes to "too good to be true" stories. I'm not necessarily believing this happened, but I'm not gonna shoot it down ;) until I know if we're getting a repeat performance. Who knows, maybe he is holding back details until he is sure he can patent it. Strange stuff happens, sometimes it even true.

[tekHedd]

The music!

Wow, the sappy music really adds that certain special... yuck... to the video. Was the video fake? I sure hope so, because they deserve it for inflicting that on us.

[TRT]

The BBC's been duped!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17468907

[Ralph B]

Re: The BBC's been duped!

Not really. The Beeb chap (Ros Atkins) reports the "claims" fairly sceptically, finishing with "if you ask me I think he probably just spend some time on his PC with some video editing software".

Of course, if you didn't register these words then it's likely that most others won't either, but I can't really blame the Beeb for that. A viral video fake is about as newsworthy as a skateboarding duck.

[json]

This doesnt hold water (or air for that matter)

the way he goes up and down while airborne looks like one of those pre CGI flying effects movies.. and yes the wings does not look like its grabbing on to any air at all..

STILL! it would have been really cool if it were real.

[The Indomitable Gall]

Re: This doesnt hold water (or air for that matter)

Definitely -- it has the look of a Harryhausen about it...

Sadly it's easier to convince someone something is real by making it look like a film than by making it look, you know, real.

[Mexflyboy]

*sniff sniff*

I call bullshit...

[Anonymous Coward]

YALF

Yet Another Lying Fandroid

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: YALF

I did wonder how long it would be before an Apple fanboy showed up.... YOU MENTIONED ANDROID, HEATHENS.

Fucking fanboys.

[Anonymous Coward]

You could do it on Mars

Yet another reason to go there.

[Displacement Activity]

An admirable demonstration...

...that there's one born every minute.

[Anonymous Coward]

utterly bollocks

He'd have to run at least 50mph to get enough lift, and even so, as soon as he took off his speed would plummet (as would he like a ton of bricks). Which clearly proves it to be fake.

[MrXavia]

While I think its fake, I like the idea..

Wings, motors, batteries & controllers, just augment the human... Must be possible... well if they can fly with pure man power(pedel) augmented is fully possible!

[Anonymous Coward]

As we say here...

Aye right!

[Ron1]

Bettery - They use 74Wh of Li-po batteries

Don't know if the flight is real or not, but batteries are adequate.

Their 3d sketch lists 4x5000mAh batteries

This battery has same specs:

http://www.stefansliposhop.de/liposhop/sls-apl/sls-apl-45c/sls-apl-5000mah-4s1p-148-v-45c-90c::748.html

Has a mass of 571g, 4x 5000mAh cells, can output up to 6 kW (12V x 500A) of power (for 30s or so) - quite adequate methinks

What were you expecting el reg? Several car batteries? As any RC modeller knows Li-pos are quite powerful...

[Technologikal]

I'm just surprised anyone had to resort to science fact, to out this as a viral, I mean, everyone used their eyes while watching the clearly dodgy footage didn't they? Did the entire tech press have a common sense bypass all at once? Oh and hey, look at what Nintendo are releasing tomorrow http://www.nintendo.co.uk/kidicarus

In other news, I've got some magic beans for sale.

[Anonymous Coward]

Magic Beans!

I'd buy that for a dollar!

[MegaZone]

An admitted hoax

He admitted it is fake: http://www.snopes.com/photos/technology/humanbirdwings.asp

[Doug Glass]

There's a sucker born ...

... every minute. Great show guys ... just really great.

[Andus McCoatover]

HOAX!!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17487366

(Pity, really...)

[Adam Inistrator]

The giveaway for me what the total lack of info about the assist power unit which was supposed to provide nearly all of the missing power.