The Human-Powered Ornithopter (HPO) Project is part of a student organization at the University of Toronto that is focused on the design and construction of innovative, high-performance, human-powered vehicles. Their goal is to provide students with practical hands on experience in engineering design while at the same time promoting efficiency, sustainability, and the use of human-power as a means of reducing society’s impact on the environment. The HPO Project seeks to achieve one of humanity’s oldest dreams with the successful flight of a human-powered, flapping-wing aircraft, the last of the aviation firsts.

On Monday, the 43kg aircraft with a 32 metre wingspan took to the air for the first time.  On Saturday, October 24, 2009, the team will be displaying the ornithopter at the Great Lakes Gliding Club in Tottenham, Ontario from 10am until 4pm.

For more on the HPO project, visit: www.hpoproject.ca.