'Bird Man’ video-maker admits to hoax

[IDemo]

Source: Raw Story

By David Ferguson
Friday, March 23, 2012 10:30 EDT

The remarkable video captivated the world. In it, engineer Jarno Smeets of Phillips launched himself into the air and flew like a bird with a pair of home-made mechanical wings.

Sadly, it has now come to light that the video was a hoax. Wired magazine reports that engineer Jarno Smeets is actually filmmaker and animator Floris Kaayk, who admitted to the hoax on Dutch TV show “De Wereld Draait Door” (“The World is Turning”).

Kaayk said that the original “Human Bird Wings” video was actually the culmination of an 8-month project about how stories and information spread by way of the Internet. He claims that he chose the project because “it’s everybody’s dream to fly.”



Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/03/23/bird-man-video-maker-admits-to-hoax/

[truthisfreedom]

1. It was so sad to see the crys of "fake!" come true.

I'm not sure that what they did is a good thing.

[cbayer]

2. Another great example of the power of the intertubes.

Dangerous stuff, that.

[Canis Mala]

3. Simple physics was enough to know it was fake...

In order to leverage such long wings, something in proportion would need to stick out from the operator's chest as fulcrum for moving the wings. Human chest and shoulder muscles could move the wings on the ground, standing still, but are not made once one had to deal with wind resistance. This is why birds have such deep chests. They also have the wish bone, which acts as a spring to operate the wings and move air in and out of the lungs during flight.

[Webster Green]

4. It looked fake.

Many comments on the YouTube video pointed out why it looked fake.

It was real obvious when I viewed it the second time, after reading some of the comments.

[leveymg]

5. But, it's still a nice dream. By the way, man can fly like a bird, but it takes a bicycle to do it

A real, genuine, demonstrated man-powered ornithoptor (flapping wings aircraft). Built and flown in Canada by a bunch of UT engineering graduate students in 2010 (but, even they needed a car to tow it into the air, and it only pedaled under its own power for 100 yards or so):

[polly7]

6. Awwww.

I must have sent that on to 30 people. The hoax worked!, but how disappointing ....... I loved watching him fly.

[Mosby]

7. This video is the real deal

two broken legs as proof.

[Evasporque]

10. whoa....three inches or so and he would of been dead.....nt

[byronius]

14. Yeah, that got me. Holy cow.

[Broderick]

15. Wow

[arcane1]

8. A home-made video on the internet turned out to be a hoax????

Well, I suppose there's a first time for everything

[Evasporque]

9. This news story is a hoax!

Republicans do not want people to fly....!!!

[PoliticAverse]

11. Those UFO videos - those are real though, right ? n/t

[SomeGuyInEagan]

11. Drat! Now what am I going to do with all that kite material and Wii I ordered. n/t

[Robb]

13. And his name was not Tim.

Should've guessed.