Man Flies With Custom Made Wings

After eight months of designing, creating, and testing Jarno Smeets has successfully flown with the wings he made.

After the 60-second flight he said, "At one moment you see the ground moving away, and then suddenly you're free, a really intense feeling of freedom. The true feeling of flying. A magical moment. The best feeling I have felt in my life."

Using Wii controllers, accelerometers harvested from an HTC Wildfire Android phone and Turnigy motors he, and neuromechanics expert Bert Otten, built the wings to react to his body the way a robotic prosthesis would.

The electronics respond to his movements and multiply the strength enough to make the thirty-seven ounce wings carry his 180 pound self, plus the forty pounds of equipment.

The actual design was based off of the famous drawings by Leonardo da Vinci.


UPDATE: Jarno Smeets and His Flight are Fake