Teens Hope To Make Full-Sized Replica Of Reptile Fly

[matcom]

<snip>

Cameron Tacklind, 15, loves to build stuff. For the Fourth of July a few years back, he constructed a catapult-like contraption that hurled water balloons a full city block. He's built a soapbox derby car, designed and built a working arm for a mechanical robot, and, most recently, fashioned a gun out of hardware parts that shoots corn kernels.

Now he's on to something orders of magnitude more complex and more exciting -- helping to design and build a full-size replica of a long- extinct pterosaur, or flying reptile, and actually get it to fly.

"It's going to be a big challenge,'' admits Tacklind. "It's something that's never been done before.''

The Palo Alto High School junior is one of 13 local students spending their summer working alongside top engineers and scientists who are themselves racing to pull off the ambitious feat by this time next year.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/07/12/BAGGP7K20M1.DTL

[htuttle]

1. Run for your lives!

[tridim]

2. I've wanted one since I saw Wargames

Just like the one Dr. Faulkner had.

Good for the kid though. He reminds me of myself.