A Canadian university student named Tod Reichert piloted a human-powered plane that I like to call the wing flapper! (It's usually called an ornithopter though.) The machine was first sketched by Da Vinci way back in 1485... I can't believe his plan survived all the way to this day!
Tod stayed in the air for 19.3 seconds and covered 475.72 feet! He named his "wing flapper" Snowbird! The 92.59 pound vehicle maintained an average speed of 15.91 miles per hour! I can go that fast on a bike! This plane may not be the fastest thing around today, but if it had been built back in Da Vinci's time, it might have been!
HPO Flight from U of T Engineering on Vimeo.
No comments:
Post a Comment