The Hague, Netherlands, 20th March 2012
PRESS RELEASE
Dutch engineer is the first man in history to fly like a bird with self- built wings
Engineer Jarno Smeets (31) is the first man in history to have made a successful short flight with his self-built wings modeled on the movement and structure of real bird wings. Assisted by an electronic system of his own design, Smeets took off from the ground in a park in The Hague last sunday 18th of March 2012. The flight of an estimated hundred meters lasted about a minute, after which Smeets landed safely.
Until now people had assumed that it was impossible to fly with bird-like wings using human muscle power. Smeets designed his own system to solve this problem, using two Wii controllers, the accelerometers from a HTC Wildfire S smartphone and Turnigy motors. This combined mechanism provided Smeets with extra power to move his 17m2 wings and allowed him to move his arms freely without any risk of breaking them. The system is a wireless (haptic) concept. The wing itself was built out of a kite and carbon windsurf masts (as flightpins).
Human Bird Wings is an independent project initiated from the personal ambition and vision of Dutch engineer Jarno Smeets. “Ever since I was a little boy I have been inspired by pioneers like Otto Lilienthal, Leonardo da Vinci and also my own grandfather”. Six months ago Smeets started researching. Smeets has developed and realized his wings with support from an independent team assembled under the Human Bird Wings project, sharing his progress through a well documented blog and YouTube channel. He has offered his followers an open source concept in building bird wings. Aided by helpful suggestions of his audience he was able to successfully finish his bird wings concept.
With this project Smeets has proven that modern technology and robotica can create realistic futures from seemingly impossible engineering dreams to fly like a bird
-- END OF PRESS RELEASE -- ###
If you'd like more information about the project or contact Jarno Smeets directly you can call this phonenumber +31 618369328 or send an e-mail to humanbirdwingsproject@gmail.com
For photo's and background information, please consult my projectwebsite: Website: http://www.humanbirdwings.net/press/
YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/jarnosmeets80 Twitter: www.twitter.com/jarnosmeets80
Comments
Ha,
I love that people are so taken with the physics. Each wing is connected to the "wiggle drive" with 4 sheet metal screws into a 3/4 inch thick laminated aluminum plate. That's right 4 freakin' screws per wing.
Jason
If dragons could do it, why can't we? ;) :D LOL!!!
Why does the guy on the left who is running away look so unnatural? Because he is pretending to watch a grown man fly.
You can see the grass at 1:54 in the flight video used as a convenient place to cut to the CG segment. Play it a few times, it's an obvious cut. During which this lame fool lurched out of camera frame.
Also this guy found a flaw in the CG model.
http://www.mattmontag.com/personal/human-birdwings-hoax?utm_source=...
And Chris, tell Rhett Allain he's a sucker.
Everyone wants to believe this is real... especially on this forum because we are all drawn to flight. It is not real though... I can't even believe what I am reading in these comments! People... they would not have filmed this with a handycam that conveniently goes blurry if this were real. That is a classic filming trick to cover up CG weirdness.
If you look at one of his earlier videos, he has a full cad drawing of the motors, gears etc...that is in theory crammed into the backpack device.
Evidently his arms are just along for the ride, and to provide some kind of control authority.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgD0fYAaLq4&feature=g-hist&c...
I agree the drawing is not completely accurate with the 3 wires feeding the motor...but you can see more of what is supposed to make the thing work.
I'm not totally convinced. For such a momentous occasion, you'd think they would have filmed it better.
But I also never imagined I could cram enough stuff into an easystar to fly 3D waypoints, or push straight vertical in FPV.
@jasonshort most commentors on wired, techcrunch and here are not gullible. only the journalists are taken by the story.
No one is talking about the wing loading. how is this guy "Flapping"? That''s MASSIVE amounts of force to lift 180 pounds up and down like it was nothing.
Not to mention the lack of a Yaw control system...
I would love to see the Mythbusters actually make this, but they seem just as gullible as wired!!!
http://www.tested.com/articles/43440-thoughts-on-the-mechanics-of-a...
I wish the video was real. The moment I saw it I posted it to about 5 friends in pure joy, but then, on further reading and rethinking what I saw, I've retracted my shares of the video.
However, here is a fairly detailed design study of the same idea. The Project Falcon:
http://www.dcgeorge.com/ProjectFalcon.html
Project Falcon
I find it interesting that after putting all that time, money and energy into designing and building the rig. They decided to use a VHS/Hi8 camcorders from the early 90's with no image stabilization (judging from the quality) to record the close-up side shot while documenting the first flight..
I'd like this would be true... I am a little bit tired about CG and magics... It would be a great a shinny news.
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