A University of Toronto grad student has flown his human-powered ornithopter:
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.
The world-record flight took place Aug. 2 at the Great Lakes Gliding Club in Tottenham, Ont. It was witnessed by the vice-president (Canada) of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale – the world body governing air sports and aeronautical world records. It was also Canada’s first successful human-powered aircraft flight.
Big whoop — it’s a flapping glider. Amazing?
The flapping isn’t cosmetic. It’s an airplane propelled not by propellers or jets, but by flapping, and powered not by burning petroleum-based fuel, but by a single human pedaling. Yes, that’s amazing.