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Posted

It has to do with high wing aspect ratio.

Airplanes have a low wing aspect ratio but gain their lift by forward velocity. Birds, on the other hand have an extremely high wing aspect ratio. Those wings are pretty huge; if they've done their math right, it might be a legitimate video.

Trouble is, as you saw, duration. The human body doesn't have the same disproportionate strength in the shoulders and arms that birds have. A bifd can do that all day, we can do it for a few intense seconds and then our strength begins to ebb. It's a good thing they didn't try that running off the top of some hill and got really high really fast.

We humans on the other hand make really good falling missiles, kind of like hawks and eagles diving on a kill; and we've learned how to do that extremely well. I got an email from my former platoon sergeant the other day. It contained a link and simply the words, "In my younger days this would have been one hellava "Rush". Too damn Old Now Though. (Keep in mind that we were paratroopers and this guy taught the platoon the art of 'straphanging' - talking your way onto another unit's jump roster on your days off and getting in as many jumps as possible before they toss you."

If this sport had been around in 1977, I'd bet the farm that Jerry would have had every one of us doing it.

Enjoy:

http://player.vimeo.com/video/31481531?autoplay=1

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

Posted

It has to do with high wing aspect ratio.

Airplanes have a low wing aspect ratio but gain their lift by forward velocity. Birds, on the other hand have an extremely high wing aspect ratio. Those wings are pretty huge; if they've done their math right, it might be a legitimate video.

Trouble is, as you saw, duration. The human body doesn't have the same disproportionate strength in the shoulders and arms that birds have. A bifd can do that all day, we can do it for a few intense seconds and then our strength begins to ebb. It's a good thing they didn't try that running off the top of some hill and got really high really fast.

We humans on the other hand make really good falling missiles, kind of like hawks and eagles diving on a kill; and we've learned how to do that extremely well. I got an email from my former platoon sergeant the other day. It contained a link and simply the words, "In my younger days this would have been one hellava "Rush". Too damn Old Now Though. (Keep in mind that we were paratroopers and this guy taught the platoon the art of 'straphanging' - talking your way onto another unit's jump roster on your days off and getting in as many jumps as possible before they toss you."

If this sport had been around in 1977, I'd bet the farm that Jerry would have had every one of us doing it.

Enjoy:

http://player.vimeo.com/video/31481531?autoplay=1

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

I think you've got it backwards Mike. Birds and fighter aircraft have a low aspect ratio. Some aircraft like gliders have high aspect ratios.

Aspect ratio

Marc

Posted

Looks fake.

Where's the lift coming from? Not his flapping. Not his forward speed.

I've been following this guy for a while; if it's fake, he's managing to fool a lot of people that have watched several test flights.

I'm not sure your premise (not flapping, not forward speed) is accurate. You have no data to back up a claim of falsehood.

What do you base your position upon?

Posted

I'm with Jim. It's fake. The video doesn't constitute proof in this day and age. Lotsa people alter video footage and make outrageous claims.

Marc

Posted

O.K. "It's fake" may have also been said about the Wright brothers. As to the Chinese flyers, "rotsa ruck". Those be wild and clazy guys.

But the topic of this post is a long tube up the poop shoot and Ozzie and whatsername make a very valid point. My best bud was saved by one as have many other lives. If you are over 50ish and have not had one, do it soon. It is a cancer that is beatable if caught in time. And, you only need one every ten years (if no polyps are found). And when it is over, talk about a cool video.

Posted

By golly.............you've got to hand it to Ozzy-still looking pretty good. You know the old saw that long-time couples begin to look alike as time goes by-Ozzy and Sharon look more like sisters!

Posted

It has to do with high wing aspect ratio.

Airplanes have a low wing aspect ratio but gain their lift by forward velocity. Birds, on the other hand have an extremely high wing aspect ratio. Those wings are pretty huge; if they've done their math right, it might be a legitimate video.

Trouble is, as you saw, duration. The human body doesn't have the same disproportionate strength in the shoulders and arms that birds have. A bifd can do that all day, we can do it for a few intense seconds and then our strength begins to ebb. It's a good thing they didn't try that running off the top of some hill and got really high really fast.

We humans on the other hand make really good falling missiles, kind of like hawks and eagles diving on a kill; and we've learned how to do that extremely well. I got an email from my former platoon sergeant the other day. It contained a link and simply the words, "In my younger days this would have been one hellava "Rush". Too damn Old Now Though. (Keep in mind that we were paratroopers and this guy taught the platoon the art of 'straphanging' - talking your way onto another unit's jump roster on your days off and getting in as many jumps as possible before they toss you."

If this sport had been around in 1977, I'd bet the farm that Jerry would have had every one of us doing it.

Enjoy:

http://player.vimeo.com/video/31481531?autoplay=1

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

I think you've got it backwards Mike. Birds and fighter aircraft have a low aspect ratio. Some aircraft like gliders have high aspect ratios.

Aspect ratio

Marc

Nope, go to the link you've posted and scroll down past the first section to where it talks about the high aspect ratio of birds' wings.

Studied up on this quite a bit twenty years ago. Back then, I'd designed a man-powered helicopter with contra-rotating roters. I wanted to win the Sikorsky prize for being the first guy to get one up ten feet and hold it for one minute. Spent a lot of time dinking around with designs. Had one I thought would work pretty well but couldn't get anyone interested in helping me to build the damned thing so I tossed the idea.

It's just as well I didn't spend any time and money trying to do that. There have been universities with teams of engineering students chasing that prize for years and none have been successful.

It's a $250K prize and probably won't reimburse whoever finally does it for everything they spend in the quest.

If those wings are large enough and light enough, and he's got a way to retract them and rotate them the way a bird does as it cycles it's wing, that won't wear him out, it might be a legitimate video. The flight duration would certainly seem to fit with the time one would think it would take a human to tire out flapping those big wings.

Posted

What's most interesting is the amount of buzz this has generated. Lots of people have weighed in on the "fake vs. real" argument, with mixed reviews.

Jamie @ Mythbusters has written a piece on why it could be real. CGI experts are uniformly dismissive. Video editors have noted things like shadows not being right. Houston claims it may be a fake.

The guys resume doesn't check out; no one knows who he is.

So, I don't know. I tend to doubt it, but......

It looks really cool, and it's odd to see people completely miss the magic and fun and immediately go to dour calls of fakery.

Posted

Well, butt boroscopes was a little flat, so I tried to lighten it up with a flight fantasy.

Shoot, folks were talking laundry in another thread. I figured the system needed a shock.

My work here is done......

Posted

I've read all posts in this thread, but have not clicked on any of the links posted.

How did we go from butt borescope to Icarus.

Bill,

You must have missed the fine print. The winner gets flown to NYC for the colonoscopy. Second place also gets a free colonoscopy but they have to fly there on their own.

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