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In Perspective, Planet: First confirmed and documented sustained flight by humans with wings! Video!!

Oops! It's here!

I've seen a human energy propelled aircraft before, with a propellor indeed, driven by pedaling. A flapping wing construction that's effective is new though.

However, from the video it's unclear how much, if any, the flapping contributed to prolonging (instead of shortening) the glide path after gaining altitude and speed by being towed. It's not clear how much wind there was either (with enough wind he could even have gained altitude).

The video by itself is not good proof, but it must have been fun making the 'bird'. I also like the ingenuity.

Cheers,
Bart


P.S. they claim altitude and airspeed were maintained, so we'll have to wait for official independent confirmation of that.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I've seen a human energy propelled aircraft before, with a propellor indeed, driven by pedaling. A flapping wing construction that's effective is new though.

Yes, it's the bird flight that's most significant and the time. I haven't seen all the videos. They might have had 5 flights with no pedaling and then repeated that with pedaling to make the proof. Or else instrumentation.

This is only the beginning! The flapping wing is elegant in design. Getting off the ground by cycling would have been even more impressive.

Asher
 
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