World Record Ornithopter Flight, August 2nd, 2010

[metacosmos]

You need more speed on the car.

[330MillionGods]

I think flapping is not intentional. Because wings are not strong enough, they appear to be flapping. It is not an ornithopter.

[126mx]

wtf how come i havnt heard of this thats amazing

[ereignisfelder]

what about taking a seat in a festo smart bird?

[MrROTD]

fill the wings with helium!!!!!

[roro879]

Or,instead of storing energy for the wings to flap,he could have a propeller on the back for thrust,and the wings flapping could provide the lift

[IstasPumaNevada]

@roro879 The whole point of the project is to get it so that the flapping of the wings, powered by a human, is what provides the forward thrust, while the wings and the flapping provide the lift. A propeller or gliding on thermals would negate their aim. I think improvements will have to come from optimizing drag, and improving the flapping motion to be more efficient. Perhaps also reduction in material weight, though it's already very light at 43.5 kg (without pilot)

[roro879]

You guys need to get this thing airborn with an actual airplane,once you acheive altitude,you can glide on thermals,helping you to go higher. By the way,did he stop pedaling because he ran out of room,or because he ran out of steam?

[Skoda130]

@roro879 Probably because he ran out of steam. Flying costs a lot of energy. I don't think it wil ever be common for people to fly on their own power. Even walking up stairs becomes exhausting pretty quickly.

[blazingpedals]

An ornithopter requires the wings to provide both lift and thrust. Those wings didn't provide any thrust, hence the need for a tow. And it was hard to tell from the video, but I don't think it had enough lift to actually gain altitude at any point. So basically, it was a human powered glider with neat articulate wings.

[IstasPumaNevada]

@blazingpedals The flapping does provide some thrust, it's just that the limits of power the human can provide are already so close just to maintain flight that there's not enough to spare to get the plane up and moving as well (it also takes less energy to maintain flight than to start). I don't have the altitude/airspeed data myself, but -if- the pilot/motor managed to maintain or gain altitude and airspeed for even just a few flaps, it would be a first in known human history. A good start.

[roidroid]

Perhaps it could take off under it's own power, if there was some onboard way of storing energy.

The pilot could "cycle" for a few minutes to charge a battery or flywheel while stationary on the ground. And then press a button, release that stored energy to get air-born.

[4123456789]

beautiful!

[marracotube]

Needs an athlete

[RunningLemonStudios]

I wonder if a tandem ornithopter would be able to sustain flight longer?

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? It seems to me that it would be more efficient.

[Seyeklopz]

Gliders are 'powered' by convection currents in the air. They are not unpowered.

[roidroid]

@Seyeklopz So by your definition unpowered flight does not exist?

[Evi1M4chine]

Sad. I thought it could fly longer. Like at least 90km before falling 100m. Because that’s what unpowered gliders manage to do. So it should do more, because it’s powered .

Was it that tiring to keep it in the air? Was the glide/fall ratio bad? Was the efficiency of flapping bad?

I bet it can go much further.

If you feel a bit safe about it, why not fly off a cliff? That way you could do a much better measurement of performance. :)

[flylowi2]

awesome. just awesome. can i follow your project somehow?

kind regards from austria/europe

ps: i had to laugth, because it really looks (a bit) like an ash25 in hard thermals ;-)

[qHighFlyerp]

How about this ... Just Google: ash-30 m.. Asg-29...antares 20 e... Duo discus ... Nimbus 4dm.... These are real gliders that really can glide and make big distances this is just a piece of junk

[roidroid]

@qHighFlyerp this is not a glider. it can sustain flight on it's own (human) power.

[ChantalBJA]

beautiful

[327372]

so how can they achieve longer flight and higher altitude?????????????????  i am pretty interested

[ADEdge]

This many years of human technological development and we can almost make something to fly like a bird.

Although this is quite a bit larger than most birds. Very impressive.

[roidroid]

@ADEdge it would be a lot easier if we humans weren't so big.

[TheTwelfthPlanet]

@roidroid tha tis why we have japanese

[ToxicSun]

@TheTwelfthPlanet itscanadian, bitch.

[hollowmanjm]

That wasn't flying! That was... falling with style!

[mnchaussen]

BS .. THEY PULLING THE PLANE UP LIKE A KITE

[moonunitenar]

@mnchaussen You should really try to think for a second before you hit the caps lock and spew whatever impulse just came into your brain. Now anybody who knows anything about flight thinks you're an idiot.

[baonhan]

so beautiful

[milofelis]

Very impressive- some very clever stressing in those wings. The fuselage rises and falls significantly during the flap cycle, so there is clearly more happening here than just gliding. How would the duration of this flight compare with an unpowered glide from the same altitude ,also slipstreaming the car?

[MsAnoPoYun]

WOW i hope i can Invented like that!XD

[av8torboy]

First recorded flight using a human-powered Ornithopter (wing flapping airplane). Like birds, the wing flapping produces the thrust... certainly seems more fun than a treadmill, stair-stepper or Nordic-trac... I wonder if it could self-launch... probably not due to too much weight-to-available thrust.

[telaxu]

@av8torboy

liftoff? what do birds do? they run... perhaps the pilot could run, or attach a bicycle to the bottom? at what speed did the 'thopter lift?

[moonunitenar]

@av8torboy Close, but not quite. The flapping creates lift, not thrust. It's the horizontal component of that lift once the plane is up that sustains forward movement. It cannot self launch because it needs forward momentum to generate enough lift to get airborne, and it can't move itself forward until it is in the air and has gravity pulling it down. So it needs the tow at first. Similar to a glider.

[Valy18]

@moonunitenar Well at 30 metters wingspan and 45 kg + pilot weight is is a very light glider with huge wings I don't know it the wing flapping has any effect at all maybe a few seconds more of flight . Plus at that altitude the ground effect is present so this doeesn't show much .

[Seyeklopz]

@moonunitenar

They are producing lift and thrust. They wings also twist as they flap.

[QceanWeaver]

@Seyeklopz the wings were lift, but the car pulling them created thrust. Furthermore, it's debatable if the wings were even creating lift, or simply prolonging a glide. If you watch closely, their altitude is decreasing even though the wings are flapping.

[someman7]

I find this many times more impressive: /watch?v=a-qS7oN-3tA

Seems to me you're little more than gliding there.