Human-powered plane takes to skies

Name: Human-powered plane takes to skies
Uploaded: 2010-09-24T22:38:50.000Z
Description: A Canadian student inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's centuries-old sketches of an ornithopter he was the first to make a sustained flight in a human-powered, wing-flapping aircraft.

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A Canadian student inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's centuries-old sketches of an ornithopter he was the first to make a sustained flight in a human-powered, wing-flapping aircraft.

Powered and piloted by engineering student Todd Reichert, the craft, dubbed Snowbird, flew 145 meters in 19 seconds.

It travelled at an average speed of 16.5 miles per hour.

Video courtesy of University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies

Science & Environment

24 September 2010