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First Human-Powered Ornithopter
spasm writes "A University of Toronto engineering graduate student has made and successfully flown a human-powered flapping-wing aircraft. From the article: 'Todd Reichert, a PhD candidate at the university's Institute of Aerospace Studies, piloted the wing-flapping aircraft, sustaining both altitude and airspeed for 19.3 seconds and covering a distance of 145 metres at an average speed of 25.6 kilometres per hour.'"
Must flow.
Besides the "gee-whiz" factor, why is time being spent on this sort of research? Will any flapping-wing aircraft ever be as efficient as a modern jumbo-jet for transporting large loads of cargo and people? I'm no aerospace engineer, and I'm not saying that a jet is the model of efficiency, but I don't see how a flappy wing mode of transport would be better.
Just in time for Yueh to leave us a pair of stillsuits in the back. The article doesn't mention if it's big enough to lift a spice harvester however.
Oh a million deaths are not enough for Yueh!
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
The article doesn't make it clear that the aircraft still needs to be pulled for it to glide into the air (you can see this in the attached video). I was under the impression that it took off like a bird. The "flapping" of the wings is really cool to see though, once the craft gets airborne.
Either way, really neat.
Vivin Suresh Paliath
http://vivin.net
I like
Can we ride it out to the spice harvester?
To put off writing their thesis.
Human-powered ornithopters? Sounds like Dune meets the Flintstones!
Atreides, Paul Atreides
He's the greatest man in history
On the planet Arrakis
He'll kill Harkonnen and make the Fremen free
Incredible!
"better ways of doing things eventually just replace the inferior things" - Linus Torvalds 09-08-07
2011 will be the year of the flying bicycle!
So it gets towed to 20 feet and flaps a few times until it settles back to the ground. Flight? At least tow it to a certain height and flap to a higher altitude.
What doesn't kill you only delays the inevitable
...is a very delicate time.
Back in my day our Ornithopters cost zero mana and our Atogs liked it!
I opened this when the front page was telling me there were only five comments, wondering if anyone had made a Dune reference yet. Oh, how naive I was...
Evidence should be provided that the aircraft can gain altitude without losing speed if the claim is made of powered flight. I am not convinced by this video that sustained flight is possible with this device given how much energy the car provided before the tow line was dropped. An aircraft that continually loses total energy (the sum of kinetic energy from speed and potential energy from altitude) is a glorified glider.
Looks more like an automobile-powered flight to me. A car pulls it into the air, it flaps a few times and descends. That is human-powered, flapping flight? Sorry, doesn't impress me all that much.
Indeed. Who'd of thunk that being towed into a glide slope qualifies as "human powered."
Actually, there are different kinds of birds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEP-KgJkYnw
Potential Customer: Ryanair.
This is not even close to the first human powered ornithopter. One of the most significant recent attempts is Yves Rousseau who crashed and became a paraplegic as a result of one of his flights.
I wonder why their design only used motion in one direction (push), never mind only using such a small amount of body strength (legs).
A design similar to a rowing machine would use more body strength, and could also capture energy in both directions. Hmm... rowing-powered ultralight chopper, anyone?
Was the inventor's name Urza, by any chance?
This is the FIRST FLIGHT of the FIRST PROTOTYPE built by a college student who further chose to pilot it himself rather than hiring a professional athlete (although he did train and even lose weight). If the first prototype of a software application you wrote in school was more impressive than that, we would love to hear of it. Otherwise tone down the skepticism. One day people might fly this as a sports/hobby thing after being boosted by a friend or a ski lift-type thingy or it would be a cool spy gadget you can assemble from your backpack. Add a two person model or a very small motor to supplement human power and it becomes vastly more practical.
Besides the "gee-whiz" factor, why is time being spent on this sort of research? Will any flapping-wing aircraft ever be as efficient as a modern jumbo-jet for transporting large loads of cargo and people? I'm no aerospace engineer, and I'm not saying that a jet is the model of efficiency, but I don't see how a flappy wing mode of transport would be better.
Seriously, dude, if you ask questions like this, Slashdot is probably not the place for you.
P.S. Cynicism does not necessarily make you appear wise.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
This looked like the wings were flapping but the machine was slowly going down, not a single flap pushed it up.
This did not look like a flight, it looked like a delayed fall.
You can't handle the truth.
Tell me how to build a full scale ornithopter that has room for a full wing-flap while grounded and still weighs little enough to get airborne, otherwise I'm just not impressed with your disappointment.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Sure, it seems like a neat project now, but just wait until this guy swoops over Toronto and sounds the Panic Horn.
This is merely a glider, nothing more. The up-flap cancels out the down-flap as the wings appear to move vertically. All winged animals I'm aware of either twist their wings at angles or fold them, especially on the up-flap, so that most of the powered force is directed to pushing air under the wings on the down flap and the wing simply cuts through the air on the up flap.
from 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
to 45 2F 6E 40 3C DF 10 71 4E 41 DF AA 25 7D 31 3F
Do you remember when, back in the day, you could write or say anything about anything, no matter how uninformed you were, and if you communicated authoritatively enough, your audience would just eat it up with a spoon and not question you? Yeah, we have the Internet now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human-powered_transport
In the 1989 Race Across America, one team (Team Strawberry) [1] used an experimental device that consisted of a rear wheel hub, a sensor and a handlebar mounted processor. The device measured each cyclist's power output in watts. In lab experiments an average "in-shape" cyclist can produce about 3 watts/kg for more than an hour (e.g., around 200 watts for a 70 kg rider), with top amateurs producing 5 watts/kg and elite athletes achieving 6 watts/kg for similar lengths of time. Elite track sprint cyclists are able to attain an instantaneous maximum output of around 2,000 watts, or in excess of 25 watts/kg; elite road cyclists may produce 1,600 to 1,700 watts as an instantaneous maximum in their burst to the finish line at the end of a five-hour long road race.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
I looked at all the videos available for the flight. It is obvious that the flapping is maintaining flight - if he just started gliding at the release point, there is no way the flight would have been as long. This is probably the best view, and it also lets you hear what this thing sounds like when it flaps.
I need trepanation like I need a hole in the head.
I am not impressed at all because of it. I understand that it needs to get launched some how, but it seems to me that it just glided off the initial tow. It would have probably gone father if it didn't flap the wings. I know my gliders I build RC ones and that flapping would just be consider flutter which actually spoils the lift. The flapping would probably create some lift but at the speeds this one was moving it looks like it just spoils it.
And I don't just build any gliders mine go past 300mph and in the right conditions I can make ounce 60" bricks fly
World record has now past 400mph. I haven't been able to build anything tht will structurally handle those speeds just disintegrates on the air.
I think one of the main problems with flapping wing take off is the initial oscillations. I think that the vehicle (made of very light materials) has to oscillate (crash) into the ground a few times before getting enough speed generated by the flapping wings...getting a tough enough machine to withstand those initial crashes is likely the reason some form of powered assist is required. For now. Big kudos to these researchers!
I was a little disappointed by that. It went from "Best News Story Ever" to "Cool, but I'm not entirely sure that flight was demonstrated".
Still, a minor downhill incline would seem to be a reasonable requirement.
But is it true flight, or is it using ground effect?
I guess we'll need to send him off a cliff. ;)
Seriously. I watched the video. I saw a car towing what appears to be a glider until it was already airborne. After that, I saw the wings flap.... ***slightly*** It did not look like the flapping had anything to do with staying airborne. The flapping continue for a few seconds...***not*** 19.3 seconds. Then the flapping stopped, it glided for a few more seconds and the video ended.
Not trying to be rude...but how does this prove anything? It just looks like another glider.
I don't get why you didn't post using your real name. Why be an AC?
Well, I made one or two as a kid, from thin steel wire and aluminium foil, rubber band-powered. The best could fly one park length (~50m?) from the ground by flapping furiously. Looked awesome in flight, but always lost a wing or tail on landing.
Too bad video at the time meant a (super-expensive and nearly impossible to find) 8mm video camera and a place to develop the roll.
You are on slashdot. Please take off your management hat and put on your engineering one. Thank you.
Once you start despising the jerks, you become one.
In order to win the Ornithopter X-Prize, you need to flap and stay in the air long enough to drop your pants, and take a crap on a car windshield.
Now that would really prove that man can build a machine that enables man to emulate bird behavior.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
consider that most birds do give themselves a first start with their legs rather then wings. Hell, the swan basically runs like crazy before getting of the ground. And iirc, the wright brothers flier was pulled along a rail using a weight and pulley system to get enough speed. But once up to speed, the motorcycle engine was enough to keep it up there unless the pilot did something crazy.
comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
...we've had flapping-wing aircraft for three-quarters of a century.
Birds flap their wings with a painfully inefficient reciprocating motion, because nature doesn't know how to make one critical component: a rotating joint. We do, so our wing-flappers flap their wings with nice, efficient rotary motion...and we call them helicopters.
rj
How about if we wait to see the kid's thesis, where presumably he'll find a way to demonstrate the flapping adds something over a non-flapping flight? I hope he can do that. Cool story.
"Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit
Yeah, there's those french wind up flappy birds, I forget the name, but you had to throw those. What kind of landing gear did yours have that let them flap on the ground?
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
The aircraft needs to be towed off the ground. And at least for me, everything that she is able is to glide some distance, and unable to gain altitude.
It reminded me two brothers who guarantees that have achieved the first flight of a heavier than air long time ago...
Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
In an effort to one up the silly Canadians, members of the elite engineering squad at Ivy University X have crafted an ornithopter of their own which is powered by sitting on your fat ass watching "Keeping up with the Kardashians." It is believed that this vehicle will provide a more feasible means of transportation for most Americans.
Maybe because Slashdot's system for posting sucks and is stuck in the 1990's? Why is there no way to log in *when* you post something? If you've written a nice long informative post then realize you weren't logged in, logging in at that point totally loses your context: the story you were looking at, the post you were responding to, and the response you'd already written. I don't see why Slashdot still makes this such a pain.
Interesting.
Mine wasn't French we didn't have these behind the Iron curtain, we had to make our own. I "improved" an awful concept drawing form a shitty magazine.
I had fitted it with something like long stork legs on wheels which would detach and remain on the ground on takeoff (too heavy to lift). It would land on its belly (or side, or back, depending on the wind).
Since it was just steel wire, it was easy to fix - pliers, wooden hammer and a few strips of foil ... lots of fun.
The human body has a max output of about 200 watts. About 1/4 HP. sustained flying is probably a pipe dream.
I was under the impression that it took off like a bird
It does take off like a bird; it takes off like a very big bird. There are a couple of interesting sentences in that:
Albatrosses in calm seas are forced to rest on the ocean's surface until the wind picks up again.
When taking off, albatrosses need to take a run up to allow enough air to move under the wing to provide lift.
Ask me about repetitive DNA
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Ask me about repetitive DNA
Sure he's not studying to be a politician?
That's what our government does.....flap its wing....er....gums........with no results.....
I am sure that is before the addition of beans and broccoli. Think of it like nitro on a car.
...falling, with style. You might go so far as to call it a toy, just don't tell him that. He thinks he's going to save the universe.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
> It does take off like a bird; it takes off like a very big bird.
Though big birds run to take off they do so under their own power. Maybe he needs to add leg holes?
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
It makes me think of that old footage of failed flying machines... remember the umbrella thing that bounced up and down? Anyways, this is just the greatest. This is right up there with winning a hot dog eating contest. Totally useless probably, but so inspirational.
Clickety Click
I thought, on first glance, that it said 'fapping' and didn't even bat an eye. Thank you Internet.
Nice flight but needs work. As mentioned the wings need way more flex, really on the up stroke that should practically collapse and be pulled up sharply then extended again for the down stroke. Synchronized tension on both top and bottom during down stroke, then released tension on top with increased tension in a third "shoulder" joint to pull the wings up, followed by full tension across both top and bottom of the wings again to extend. Rinse and repeat.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
Nah, olympic level cyclists can generate up to 2000 watts for brief periods and elite level road cyclists over 400 watts for periods up to an hour.
The human body has a max output of about 200 watts. About 1/4 HP. sustained flying is probably a pipe dream.
Let's look at the theoretical limit (best case scenario): someone builds a flying machine out of unobtanium, and so the machine itself weighs zero kilograms. In this case the pilot needs only to support his own weight. Would human-powered flight be possible in this scenario?
(I don't have the necessary physics or physiology knowledge to even put out a guess -- but if not, I suppose you can always hop in a glider and take advantage of updrafts)
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
Vladimir Toporov beat them to it.
I do actually hop im a glider and use various forms of lift to maintain flight.
Famous glider pilot and designer Paul McReady
desigend the aircraft below.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gossamer_Albatross
This was the most sucessful attempt at a human powered aircraft. It required 400w to maintain level flight. Powered by pdeals and a propellor,
it would be significantly more efficient than a wing flapping system, which produces large vorticies.
It was very fragile to acheive its 100KG auw and an encounter with even mild turbulance would have destroyed it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_power
tells the story nicely.
You're correct about the original takeoff system, but the Wright flyer didn't use a "motorcycle engine." It was a custom-designed, four-cylinder engine with a cast aluminum crankcase.
Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
If ornithopter.org is to be believed, the first ornithopter to maintain height and altitude after a tow launch was made by Alexander Lippisch in 1929. Interestingly he went on to design the first rocket powered fighter for the Germans during WWII.
Gliders lose altitude... This doesn't.
That is dynamic soaring. I love the sound the glider make at high speeds almost as if it had a turbine, and the boom it makes at the bottom of the hill is scary.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_SDFnVtLUE
How far would it have just glided after being towed into the air without the flapping? I wager nearly the same distance. When did they release the tow line if at all? What direction and strength of wind, if any was present during the flight? I noticed that at one point the pilot stopped the flapping because it was causing the craft to lose altitude. A very commendable attempt but also a very weak result.
-Eric
That link is an interesting read. His back-of-the-envelope calculation normalizes a Boeing 747 to just slightly less efficient than the Grey-Cheeked Thrush: 4.79 watts to 4.5. He's right that no one would want to fly an airliner at 31mph, however 1 or 2 people flapping to work at 31mph could someday be highly attractive over driving a car.
Is it a rule, that there's an exception to every rule?
You must get through a lot of test pilots.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Which just proves GP's point that 200W is the maximum you can realistically expect, unless you are limiting it to elite athletes only.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
He could call it The Flintstone Flyer.
Some of what I say is fact, some is conjecture, the rest I'm just blowing out my ass...you guess.
Wow, and I feel guilty enough about reading and posting on slashdot when I should be writing my PhD thesis. Building a human powered ornithopter, that's a whole other level of displacement activity!
I was under the impression that it took off like a bird.
Which "bird" would that be?
I've long argued that the first purpose of abstractions is to mislead and lie, frequently to ourselves. Using "bird" in the context of a manner of take-off is just such a use.
What you are misled about here is apparently the vast diveristy of different take-off modes that different birds use. In particular, if you have ever seen an albatross take off, you wouldn't be snearing at using a car to assist an ornithopter off the ground. While the albatross hasn't evolved a tow-hook (yet) it generally requires a combination of wind and waves to assist it into fight.
I'm not sure if an albatross can take off from still water on a windless day at all, and they certainly find it much, much easier in conditions where the waves shape the surface winds to give added lift. They use this in thier gliding flight as well, but it is particularly important in takeoff.
So given the vast diversity of ways in which birds take off, including the use of power-assist from the environment, the claim that this "doesn't take off like a bird" is meaningless as well as churlish.
I typically make fun of U of T grads (because hey, they went to U of T) but this is an excellent example of what brilliant people can do even in such benighted circumstances, and I'm sure everyone who worked on the project is justifiably proud of their role in the first human-powered ornithopter ever, both for the simple wonder of the technical achievement and the value they have added to human knowledge of areonautics along the way.
Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
As much as it is all that, I still can not get over the lack of plug ins for your headset to watch the on flight movie...or lack of bathrooms, seems to me a bit messy for the people under you when you need to go while traveling long distances.
That guy made a pretty bad error: fat has 9 kcal/g, not the 4.22 kcal/(1.1 gram) that he claims. That means the birds use around 9 watts (of fat energy) to fly, twice as much as he calculated.