Self-Powered Flying Dutchman Is Fake, Right Down to His Name

Haha, The final video now already has 3 million views on youtube (14 part series). Some 90% of the people believing it's the real deal. News channels everywhere showing the story. These guys are amazing in fooling them all.

Kudo's for the performance. You fooled me for about the first 30 seconds though. If only it was real and we could all fly like birds.

Hard to post a comment! Just click "Post comment" quickly and go from there.

At least this fellow didn't drag it on too long. There was very little human power in the concept anyhow but assuming there was none and you had a viable power source, this would still be very difficult to pull off in real life. Lot's of very intelligent and capable folk would have accomplished it already if not for the numerous technical hurdles. The balance alone is daunting. Achieving takeoff speed is another big one.

Someone will probably do this in the near future. I'm guessing less than a decade before all the technology is available.

The commenting has been corrected. At first, any attempt to comment directed one to another site!

This fellow will get his reward now for having conned plenty of people. Another win for scammers.

For the rest of us, there is a win too though. Just remember for the next time how much this guy had to fake to fool you. Fake websites, articles, accounts, plans, timelines etc. etc.

Others will do more in the future.

Lol, does look kinda fake when he is finally in the air; It's do-able' but you would require robotic assisted arm strength and speed (think the guy showed some basic form) plus the wings would need to be stronger and flap allot more.

Controlling it however would be an art in itself, most cases you would spiral out of control and cause injury. Just gotta look at a bird in flight, and keep in mind a birds body is significantly lighter then a humans body based on size/mass ratio (we are big bags of water basically :) ).

Hey! Hey! Initially my heart really wanted the guy to fly! But towards the end on my comments for logical reasons, I change my opinion and said the video was faked. So.... I do not have to eat the whole crow, maybe just a foot, lol.

Sigh, I was so hoping a new sport was going to open up and we all are all flying about. I was going to spend every waking moments flying about.... Perhaps in the future it will be invented.

Kudos to the fake video!!! BAD BAD POPSCI for not checking out the source first, prior to publishing! Seems you’re an embiggen story teller now. lol

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Science sees no further than what it can sense, i.e. facts.
Religion sees beyond the senses, i.e. faith.

so, does this mean I won't be able to buy one?

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why learn from your own mistakes, when you could learn from the mistakes of others?
“The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible” -Albert Ein

(Insert Nick Cage "Ya Don't Say" face here.) The mechanics of flight have that his motors and wings couldn't possibly meet. Is this the same guy that released the "wooly mammoth" video that looked more like a bear holding a salmon in its mouth if the camera had grease all over the lens?

The internet is now the most collaborative community in history. It should become its own country! Only the internet community could expose this guy. 20 years ago he could have gotten away with it, but a large community of experts on the internet can expose anything and anyone.

This is not impossible, the only real problem was that the physics just did not add up. In fact people are working on this and they have made pretty good progress. Take a look at the TED conference on the FESTO Smart Bird.

http://www.ted.com/talks/a_robot_that_flies_like_a_bird.html

I was the first to share actual proof that the video was 100% fake. It was my very first comment on popular science, and I was proud of revealing the truth. The response I got from another user, whose image is appropriately a baby, was calling me "arrogant and preachy", and to be prepared to eat crow when I'm wrong. Well to democedes, how does it taste to eat your own words with egg on your face, and a slice of humble pie? Another user, named Robot, told the first user who expressed skepticism to, "Read a book; there’re vitamins for the brain", followed by, "Mr. Clifford Cannon, you get extra homework, lol." So Robot thinks it's funny to call someone an idiot? The irony is that Robots first comment was, "I absolutely believe this flying machine is REALLY and I LIKE to put my order in for 3 please!" That is two major grammatical errors in the very first sentence. Later on Robot contradicts his first statement saying, "Personally, I consider everything I find on the internet as hearsay". Is that so, Robot? Mr. "I absolutely believe"?
Only when the people at Industrial Light and Magic stepped in to add their opinion does democedes admit that he was wrong. What was the first conclusive evidence that they mentioned as real proof? IT WAS THE EXACT SAME EVIDENCE THAT I HAD ALREADY PROVIDED!! This is also the very same evidence that democedes told me had proved nothing. I also think they may have taken this proof directly from my comment, because they even point to the very same second that I had done previously, at 1:45 of the first test flight. It is here that you can see two black dots on the wings, and a few seconds later, one of the dots disappears.
Whether I was correct or not, my only point was that if Popular Science wants to be a reputable publication, they should check the authenticity of a story BEFORE they publish it. Now that this story has been proven as a hoax, it calls into question everything that Popular Science has reported. How are we supposed to believe anything they publish if they don't fact check? Any one can post a video they found off the internet. Journalism is about uncovering the real story.

Augsiliary,
You such a tweeb for me being so optimistic is real. First should POPSCI editors verify their articles, prior to post and forgive me for having some faith in them.

Second, I am a dream and hope all of us could one day go to a store and buy wings and fly.

Third, I later said at the end of the article it was fake, if you read.

Finally, above in a fair amount of humility, I said I at least eat the crow of a food.

Now POPSCI makes an editorial update, but makes no apology for publishing something prior to checking closer of it's validity...

All you doing now is gloating, like you did some great thing. What are real tweeb, get over yourself!

Trust me too, I can do a lot worse in grammar and spelling. I do at least toss my words in Microsoft word and attempt to correct my mistakes. Many who post on POPSCI do not ever attempt to any self edit.

.............................
Science sees no further than what it can sense, i.e. facts.
Religion sees beyond the senses, i.e. faith.

Finially,
I really like the website blog of POPSCI and that has not changed. They made a mistake, we all do, now lets get over it and remember all the cool neat articles they post every day!

.............................
Science sees no further than what it can sense, i.e. facts.
Religion sees beyond the senses, i.e. faith.

I'm surprised anyone thought this was real, and I'm embarrassed for those who cried out "It's fake!" when that should have been immediately obvious.

Augsiliary, you just recapped all the comments from the original article! "I was, like... And then he was all like...So then I was like..." I'm embarrassed for you most of all.

Anyway, back to working on my perpetual motion machine. I'll post a video when it's working. No, really.

All of you acting so high and mighty, you all knew it was fake from the beginning. You all feel sad for those who thought it was real.

I will be the only adult here.

I thought it was real.

If it was as a prank, shame on him, if it was for a CGI class or what ever then awesome he clearly will be getting good grades.

most cases you would spiral out of control and cause injury.

fingolfinon,
Your late.
scubasdsteve87,
Your late.
ommrudraksha,
Your late.
Your comments like the people who show up after they football game is over and said, yea I knew they were gonna win, rasberry pltzzzzz. You wimps!
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Now look back in hindsight, I had a blast and it was a lot of fun! I think POPSCI is a great website and blog, if they made a mistake in this fake slide by, well hell everyone makes mistakes and I have a large memory of always enjoying POPSI articles!

I look forward for todays articles! POPSCI is one COOL WEBSITE!

@Augsiliary

I hope your vigorous self-congratulating did not strain your fingers. Your "posts come off as a little arrogant and preachy", I said. Not “you are arrogant and preachy”. But now that I have read your above post, I agree that you are.

Your "disappearing dot" was evidence, not proof. As I said before, it was the stabilized video in update 2 that is the smoking gun. And speaking of update 2, if the disappearing dot was conclusive, why would Gizmodo feel the need to update with further evidence?

I have no problem with POPSCI posting this video. The article stated the possibility of the video being fake, saying "Some people are somewhat skeptical". POPSCI isn't a scholarly journal. Lighten up.

I love how POPSCI fell for it too. You know they would not put up a fake video if they knew about it hahaha. On top of that comments were saying it looks shopped. Maybe the writers should ask people commenting for advice now.

"Apparently the video was part of a documentary, the subject of which is unclear (but could totally be "how to fool the internet with an obviously fake video")."

Obviously fake? If I remember correctly it was PopSci that posted it as an article of how "Man can fly!", was it not?

And also to democedes, Robot and others: I believe that Augsiliary has the right to vent his opinions and ideas. Especially when characters such as Robot bash other opinions and ideas right off the bat without no clear rational thought. I remember reading that article multiple times, sure people seemed to realize that it was fake later on but the fact is non believers were definitely criticized and therefore Augsiliary just felt he had the right to say, basically a "I told you so".

But the one party that definitely messed up on this was PopSci which I and many others assumed was a credible website. But oh well people make mistakes and we move on, I just wish that others(PopSci) would take fault for posting a obviously weakly researched article.

I believed it when I saw it. :( Too bad it was fake. Now I feel stupid and gullable!

It should have been a hint that it wasn't real when he did it right over a tree line, instead of in an open field.

Still was worth it to hear "Fooken Mackish Moment"... but that was probably just fake foren language too... lol

De Wereld Draait Door, alias Jarno Smeets, you are not officially off my Christmas list! Gurrr!

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Science sees no further than what it can sense, i.e. facts.
Religion sees beyond the senses, i.e. faith.
Open your mind and see!