Amazing Paper Aeroplane Flight

A paper plane gets thrown out of the 18th floor and goes for an amazing trip! Waaaait for it… LINK, Via: Youtube

Felix Baumgartner to Jump from a Height of 37 km

Felix Baumgartner from Austria closer to his goal to jump from a height of 37 km (~23 miles). On Thursday, he has successfully completed a test jump with a height of almost 22 km, the balloon was filled with helium. The flight lasted eight minutes from there. 3 minutes and 43 seconds of them have been in freefall. LINK, Via: Youtube


On March 15, 2012, Austria's Felix Baumgartner jumped out of a space capsule from an altitude of approximately 71,580 feet as the Red Bull Stratos project moved forward into the manned flight stage in New Mexico. The 42-year-old rode the space capsule attached to a giant helium balloon above the so-called "Armstrong Line." The goal of the Red Bull Stratos project is to see Baumgartner attempt a record-breaking freefall from 120,000 feet this summer where he'll potentially become the first man to go supersonic without the support of a vehicle.

SportCopter 2 Flights

This is Sport Copters NEW SportCopter 2 Gyro in action. LINK: Youtube

Oktokopter Fun!

Having fun. LINK: Youtube

Music: James Galway;John Georgiadis - Canon

Man in Kenya Builds Airplane from Scrap

(Video Link)
Gabriel Nderitu, an IT professional in Kenya, is almost finished making his homemade airplane. He researched the design online and built it out of spare parts:

In the end, Nderitu mounted a Toyota engine to his modular airframe. The strutted wing and ailerons are skinned with aluminum sheet. The engine itself turns up to 4,000 rpm, driving a 74-inch wooden propeller through a simple reduction belt drive.

Nderitu plans to make his first flight soon.

Link, Via: Geekosystem, Via: Neatorama

The Besler Steam Plane

A Travel Air 2000 biplane made the world's first piloted flight under steam power over Oakland, California, on 12 April 1933.
The strangest feature of the flight was its relative silence; spectators on the ground could hear the pilot when he called to them from mid-air.
The aircraft, piloted by William Besler, had been fitted with a two-cylinder, 150 hp reciprocating engine.
An important contribution to its design was made by Nathan C. Price, a former Doble Steam Motors engineer.

More information at the LINK: Youtube

American Dynamics Flight Systems AD-150 VTOL UAV

American Dynamics Flight Systems video animation of its AD-150 vertical takeoff and landing unmanned aircraft. The tilt-duct design uses wingtip ducted fans, shaft-driven from the turboshaft engine in the fuselage, for vertical lft and forward propulsion. ADFS is conducting windtunnel and iron-bird rig tests hoping to interest the US Marine Corps in the AD-150 for its Group 4 expeditionary UAS requirement, formerlhy VUAS. LINK: Youtube

Praise to a Common Duck: Airborne Super Creatures

What's that thing flying at the cruising altitude of a modern jet? In a deadly cold, without air?
Common ducks routinely reach altitude of 5 to 6 kilometers (20,000 feet)

We see them all the time, rowing across a clear, blue sky, applauding into the air when we startle them, singing their sharp, sweet songs in the trees, spiraling, spinning over our heads … but when you take a bit of time and do a smidgen of research, you realize that birds are fascinating creatures, capable of some truly remarkable things. LINK

Archival Footage of Wright Brothers Flight in 1908

In honor of Wright Brothers Day which celebrates the first successful flight by Orville and Wilbur Wright on December 17, 1903 in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Wired has posted archival footage of the Wright Brothers flying their Wright Flyer during the month of August 1908 in Le Mans, France. LINK

Virgin Galactic Unveils World's First Commercial Passenger Spaceship

Virgin Galactic has unveiled the world's first ever commercial passenger spaceship. The sleek black-and-white vessel represents a gamble with a sky-high price tag to create a commercial space and tourism industry.

The company hopes the winged, minivan-sized SpaceShipTwo, will rocket space tourists into zero gravity within just two or three years. LINK

Solar Aircraft Flies

The first successful flight of an aircraft powered by the sun was completed in Switzerland yesterday as the Solar Impulse HB-SIA took off and landed safely. Solar Impulse founder Bertrand Piccard had dreamed of the day his plane would take flight for a decade.

With a good weather window on Thursday, test pilot Markus Scherdel was given the go ahead to take the spindly aircraft to up to take-off speed shortly after one o’clock local time. With the airplane lined up on the runway, Scherdel powered up the four motors using the on-board batteries and HB-SIA gained speed until he was able to lift off the pavement.

In a flight very reminiscent of the Wright Brothers first flight in 1903, Scherdel flew 350 meters down the runway at an altitude of only one meter in a flight lasting 28 seconds.

The team hopes to achieve a 36-hour flight by next summer. Link to story. Link to website. -Via: the Presurfer Via: Neatorama

Flight 1549 3D Reconstruction, Hudson River Ditching Jan 15, 2009

Remember Flight 1549 that crash landed in the Hudson River earlier this year? Here's a 3d recreation of the event using all data collected. Click the first "Via" link to see it in HD along with some other videos.

Via: exosphere3d, Via: Neatorama, Via: Youtube

Full info: http://www.exosphere3d.com/pubwww/pag... This animation is based on all currently available data concerning the US Airways Flight 1549 crash (Cactus 1549). Satellite imagery, elevation models and robust GIS mapping methods are utilized to create a vegetation model, terrain model and ground clutter (3D buildings). Of all available audio tracks, only two are used, La Guardia Tower and New York TRACON Departure controller position. Radar data as well as the onboard Flight Data Recorder are utilized in constructing the flightpath of the aircraft.

Football Player Takes Flight

In all the footballs games I have seen, I have never seen this. LINK

Fanwing - Incredible New Form of Aircraft

http://www.fanwing.com First public practice flight, grass take-off, of FanWing STOL airframe and interview with FanWing inventor/developer Pat Peebles, filmed by OnScreen Productions, UK at ParcAberporth, Wales. LINK, Via: Youtube

Steampunk - Hearts in Flight

Unlock your heart to this gorgeous steampunk pendant featuring a lacy brass filigree which has sprouted wings!

A vintage watch movement sits nestled into the filigree while a small collaged heart locket and tiny brass key dangle from it.

An antiqued gold or aged brass chain with small hook clasp completes this incredibly cool piece.

Pendant measures approx 2 1/8" from wing tip to wing tip, 2 1/4" from top of pendant to bottom of heart. Necklace measures approx 18 1/2" long.

LINK: Simplywillow at Etsy.com

Remote-controlled cyborg beetle

First demonstration of a neural stimulator which can accurately control the flight of a freely flying insect.

"The miniaturized system developed by Sato and his colleagues is mounted onto the pronotum (the dorsal, or upper, plate of the exoskeleton), and consists of electrodes implanted into the brain and wing muscles. Flight commands to start and stop flight and control the insect’s elevation and turning were generated on a personal computer running specialized software, and transmitted to a microcontroller which is equipped with a radio transceiver and powered by a microbattery." LINK, Via: Youtube

Martin Jetpack flight demonstration April 2009

Ray - Chief Design Engineer - demonstrates a simple flight sequence. Just a day in the life of an engineer working on the Martin Jetpack - LINK: Youtube

The First And Only Flight Of The Russian Space Shuttle.

Test Flights:

The first suborbital test flight of a scale model of Buran took place in July 1983. There were five additional flights of the scale model in following years. Aerodynamic tests of the full-scale Buran analogue began in 1984. This aero-Buran was worn out after 24 test flights and would not fly again. The last of these aerodynamic test flights was in April 1988. LINK

Skyfly RC Ultimate Flight & Ariel photography

Onboard camera and on ground camera. LINK: Youtube

Fly, Baby, Fly

Electric Oyster, a, interactive design company, created a simple but beautiful flash based 3D Flight Simulator.

Fly over the Antarctic with this simulator. It shows how Electric 3D engine can be used to render vast outdoor landscapes in high resolution at excellent framerates, without breaking a sweat. LINK: Presurfer