Inventor builds a set of wings that let him fly like a bird. Amazing video!
Well, not quite. Last night on Dutch television the “inventor” revealed that it was all an elaborate hoax:
“My name is Floris Kaayk. I’m actually a filmmaker and animator. I am now eight months working on an experiment about online media.”
You don’t say. Apparently, it was all conceived as an advertisement for the Nintendo Wii. I hope you are not too disappointed.
Most of our strength lies in our legs, not our arms. Us humans are simply not strong enough to flap our arms like a bird and take flight.
To their credit, they are actually supposed to be using a couple of large brushless outrunner motors to power the wings. The hoax stopped short of claiming human-powered flight like a bird.
The video uses a technique that we saw before in the video of an airplane losing a wing in flight: poor focus. It is used to hide the camera trickery used to make videos like these possible.
Tip: You may need to hit the “CC” (closed captioning) button for an English translation of the videos.