Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Air Traffic

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It looks like Sister Bertrille may have some company up in the skies soon...

Watch Dutch mechanical engineer Jarno Smeets take off and fly just by flapping wings of his own invention—like a real bird! It's uncanny.

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Smeets developed the wings over an eight-month period. They use a special motion mechanism built around an Android phone and Nintendo Wii controllers. His system allows him to literally start flapping his arms to take off and keep flying.




If something like this ever got approved for regular folks to use, I'd definitely get them.

Can you imagine how much more fun your commute would be?

Not to mention the option to poop on people down below you.

UPDATE: Turns out this was fake...

Surprise! The video of a man flying with a mechanically-assistated set of bird wings is a hoax. Not only did Jarno Smeets not actually fly like a bird, his name isn’t even Jarno Smeets. It’s actually Floris Kaayk, a Dutch CGI artist and filmmaker who told a Dutch TV show today that the “Human Bird Wing” project was all part of a documentary he’s making on Internet hoaxes.

If I find out that Sister Bertrille can't really fly, I'm going to be really sad.

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