Todd Reichert, an Engineering PhD candidate at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS), was both pilot and locomotion for the ornithopter, a wing-flapping device, which performed a record-breaking flight. The vehicle sustained both altitude and airspeed for 19.3 seconds, and covered a distance of 145 metres at an average speed of 25.6 kilometres per hour.
This is a feat Engineers have attempted for centuries, ever since Leonardo da Vinci sketched the first human-powered ornithopter in 1485, and the University of Toronto's human-powered aircraft is the first of its kind to flap its wings and fly continuously.