Sep 222010
Dune. Desert planet. Canada.
A University of Toronto engineering graduate student has made aviation history, successfully flying the first ever human-powered flapping-wing aircraft continuously.
6 Responses to “Human Powered ‘Thopter”
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Dang, I never saw that coming. Human powered flapping wings. I’d have thought there could never be an efficient enough conversion of mechanical energy to allow something like that to work.
A great accomplishment by a fellow U of T student.
I lived with three engineers in my first year at U of T. I tell ya, I doubt most of my fellow liberal arts students could handle the workload required to be an engineering student; I know I couldn’t. Insanity.
Not bad! I’m guessing the microcar with towline was to help get it off of the ground… or was it to help maintain a minimum forward airspeed? Either way, an impressive example of new and improved materials making the once impossible possible.
When I went to the link, it brought up a pop-up ad that had a glass of water on it, making it _really_ seem Dune-like. 🙂
Amazing
OK. That is pretty darn cool.