A Dutch hobbyist with homemade wings, a successful test flight. The wings are powered by engines with a Wiimote and a smartphone from HTC for the control of the motor.
The project of Jarno Smeets has he simply Human Birdwings: the purpose of the zelfbouwproject is to build wings with which a human being can fly like a bird. Other than a glide or propellervlucht makes Jarno use of wings of birds look similar to: this ornithopter principle makes use of moving wings. The wings follow the arm movements of the aviator, making a power-assisted wing arises.
Jarno uses the accellerometers of a Wiimote and an HTC Wildfire phone to his arm movements in vleugelbewegingen to translate. Two motors, Turnigy electric motors of 2000W, driving via a gearbox the arms of the wings. The motors get energy from lipo batteries and are controlled by a Cduino-controllerbord that using a bluetooth module with the smartphone communicates. The wings are made of balsaribben and carbon fiber tubes and canvas of a kite. The wingspan is about seven feet and the surface is about fifteen square metres.
Recently made Jarno, after a halfgelukte previous test, his first successful flight with his wings.
Update Thursday: This is a hoax. Jarno Smeets not exist and the flight is never created. It’s a project of filmmaker Floris Kaayk, as he admitted in the tv program De wereld Draait door.