Fun in the wind tunnel

June 14, 2011 11:31 AM

Here's what happens when you put four guys in a wind tunnel (slyt)
posted by roaring beast (67 comments total)

No, that simply cannot be possible. That's an unreal thing you just showed me. Lalalala not listening.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 11:36 AM on June 14, 2011 [8 favorites]

Now I want to see what happens when you put four actual random guys off the street in that thing.
posted by echo target at 11:38 AM on June 14, 2011 [23 favorites]

There is nothing about this that didn't completely blow my mind. I can't even. I'll have to stick to just the most pedestrian of queries: What was that music?
posted by DU at 11:39 AM on June 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

I am literally blown away.
posted by kinnakeet at 11:40 AM on June 14, 2011

DU, Casiokids - Fot i Hose.

Also, holy crap, how was that even possible?
posted by tommasz at 11:41 AM on June 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

kinnakeet: "I am literally blown away."

Sigh.
posted by schmod at 11:41 AM on June 14, 2011 [6 favorites]

I hate it when that happens.
posted by TheAlarminglySwollenFinger at 11:41 AM on June 14, 2011

Hey! It's an OK GO video!
posted by sourwookie at 11:44 AM on June 14, 2011 [4 favorites]

Now I want to see what happens when you put four actual random guys off the street in that thing.

For a good approximation, watch the hockey game Wednesday evening.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 11:45 AM on June 14, 2011 [6 favorites]

Needs more cats.
posted by vverse23 at 11:46 AM on June 14, 2011 [10 favorites]

Man, can you imagine how many hours you'd have to spend in a wind tunnel to get that good?
posted by Mooski at 11:47 AM on June 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

All that clean shiny new glass and metal. And it's in the Czech republic. Things have changed since I was a kid. Amazing video, glad you shared it.
posted by Western Infidels at 11:48 AM on June 14, 2011

Good god. Your title gave no indication just how inexpressibly awesome that was, an overwightI will forgive because of the inexpressible nature of the awesomeness.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:48 AM on June 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

Man, can you imagine how many hours you'd have to spend in a wind tunnel to get that good?

And how many times one can break their arm!
posted by Thorzdad at 11:48 AM on June 14, 2011

HOW MUCH DO I HAVE TO PAY IN ORDER TO DO THIS
posted by mightygodking at 11:50 AM on June 14, 2011 [6 favorites]

That shit's not regulation. Nuh uh.
posted by valkyryn at 11:50 AM on June 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Man, can you imagine how many hours you'd have to spend in a wind tunnel to get that good?

One of the many things blowing my mind is how you work out a routine like that. There's no notation for 3D dance, for instance, unless they created one. And you can't just do it on the fly easily like with, say, a cheerleading routine because a) there are so many more variables and b) you are floating around.
posted by DU at 11:52 AM on June 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

HOW YOU LIKE ME NOW, DOROTHY?
posted by From Bklyn at 11:52 AM on June 14, 2011 [5 favorites]

Oh! Oh! Me next!
posted by Bron-Y-Aur at 11:53 AM on June 14, 2011

I have totally wasted my life learning how to do things that are not this.
posted by the painkiller at 11:53 AM on June 14, 2011 [33 favorites]

What makes it all the more surreal, to me, is that you don't see any evidence of wind - no fluttering clothes or hair, no smoke, nothing. Really cool.
posted by schoolgirl report at 11:57 AM on June 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

I keep watching that, but I still don't understand how they got down.
posted by EvaDestruction at 11:58 AM on June 14, 2011

It's like having superpowers! Too cool!
posted by Ron Thanagar at 12:00 PM on June 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

There is nothing about this that didn't completely blow my mind. I can't even. I'll have to stick to just the most pedestrian of queries: What was that music?

I love how there's a guy at around 1:00 watching who just decides "Ah, fuck this shit, same old guys flying around, Imma go get a sammich."

I'd like to think instead his brain had started to overheat.
posted by odinsdream at 12:00 PM on June 14, 2011 [7 favorites]

STEM has been taking over finance, advertising, etc. fairly successfully, but the arts are holding out unreasonably well. Who'd've imagined our opening salvo against ballet would've involved the Navier–Stokes equations?
posted by jeffburdges at 12:00 PM on June 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

HOW MUCH DO I HAVE TO PAY IN ORDER TO DO THIS

There's a place in Pigeon Forge, TN where you can do this. At least, there was like a decade ago. It was really fun.
posted by odinsdream at 12:01 PM on June 14, 2011

It's like this, but 10,000 times cooler.
posted by cccorlew at 12:02 PM on June 14, 2011

Now I want to see what happens when you put four actual random guys off the street in that thing.
posted by echo target at 11:38 AM on June 14 [2 favorites +] [!]

I know it's not exactly the same thing, but there is something similar right at your local mall. (Well actually there's one at my local mall, but I'm working on the assumption that if it made it all the way here, there's probably one close to you).

For a couple of bucks, young idiots (well the only ones I've seen use it were young, and I'm jumping to the conclusion that by using it they were idiots) can experience what it's like to stand in hurricane force winds. Yes, people pay for the privilege to experience blowing, moving air. No, I can't make this up.

Here's one article about the product offering (although this isn't in my neck of the woods). Apparently some people even think this is exciting enough to put up on YouTube.

The only hope I have for humanity is that eventually the line-ups for this waste-of-time vanished and the number of people who use this ridiculous contraption have dropped down to near zero.
posted by sardonyx at 12:05 PM on June 14, 2011

I'd like to think that this wasn't actually a wind tunnel and that the guy standing outside of the tube in the center was moving these guys with the power of the Force.
posted by Horselover Phattie at 12:09 PM on June 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yes, people pay for the privilege to experience blowing, moving air. No, I can't make this up.

I was going to defend them by noting that high wind can be pretty cool. You can lean into it, you have this weird "can't breathe--too much air" sensation, etc.

But that thing just looks stupid.
posted by DU at 12:10 PM on June 14, 2011

iFly for folks in the Bay Area has a similar setup
posted by zeoslap at 12:11 PM on June 14, 2011

Now I want to see what happens when you put four actual random guys off the street in that thing.

Close approximation
posted by dust of the stars at 12:14 PM on June 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

This is cool, I guess, but part of me hates to see this being co-opted by bright, shiny glass-box mall culture. It's lost so much of its street essence it's barely recognizable. So...yay for today's kids and all, but really it just makes me long for the days in the 80's when we'd do this in an abandoned parking lot with 150 hairdriers bound together with Dad's duct tape. No helmets back then, eithe: we just let our rattails fly in the breeze.
posted by zylocomotion at 12:15 PM on June 14, 2011 [8 favorites]

There's a place down the road from here, in Raeford, where you can do this. Here's some video.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 12:17 PM on June 14, 2011

Man, can you imagine how many hours you'd have to spend in a wind tunnel to get that good?

Nah, they practice by jumping out of airplanes.

---

Actually, I was wondering if this could eventually be done without the glass surround, so that they would totally appear to be levitating. Would something like an air curtain effect around the outside be possible?
posted by beagle at 12:20 PM on June 14, 2011

mightygodking: HOW MUCH DO I HAVE TO PAY IN ORDER TO DO THIS

There was a discussion about this on Reddit some time ago, and the answer is: a lot. Like, US $75 for 3 minutes. Cheaper than skydiving, maybe, but you'd need hours and hours of practice to get good. And it's exhausting, too. It's my understanding that the impressive YouTube videos like this are generally performances by employees/instructors, who get the chance to spend hours per day in the tunnel. And who all are exceptionally slim and athletic looking.
posted by Western Infidels at 12:21 PM on June 14, 2011

Good work when you can get it.
posted by crunchland at 12:26 PM on June 14, 2011

The mall machine? $2 for 75 mph? Yeah, I'd do it. More horizontal and longer would make it better, but for $2, yeah.

Like DU I was wondering about the choreography. It made me think about square dancing, where a caller directs the dancers with a fixed set of stock phrases: "alllemande left", "do sa do", and others that have wonderful animated GIFs on this page. I can barely imagine what three-dimensional square dance calling would require.
posted by benito.strauss at 12:26 PM on June 14, 2011

I love how there's a guy at around 1:00 watching who just decides "Ah, fuck this shit, same old guys flying around, Imma go get a sammich."

That was the same point where I closed my Youtube window, funnily enough. I have a very short attention sp - oooh, shiny!

Having said that - yes, indoor skydiving is not cheap. There's a place in Niagara Falls for those of you in the area who might be interested. I could never justify the price.

Also, that "hurricane booth" thing? There's one of those at my local bowling alley.
posted by antifuse at 12:26 PM on June 14, 2011

This would be even more awesome with some kittens, or one really excited corgi in a tiny helmet.
posted by elizardbits at 12:26 PM on June 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

I've been to the iFly. This video is frigging *amazing*.

You'd think that flying is easy. Just float along, like in a dream.

It's danged hard just to float in a level position. You keep wanting to sink. Or slide towards the wall. The spotter pushes you back towards the middle. Dangit, sinking again.

It's a lot of fun, but don't expect to be doing anything like this without a lot of
practice.
posted by bitmage at 12:32 PM on June 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Now I want to see what happens when you put four actual random guys off the street in that thing.

Yeah, the FPP should read "What happens when you put these four guys in a wind tunnel." If you put me and my three buddies who whiled away last Sunday afternoon playing boardgames in there, there would be a lot more concussions and bruises and bloody noses (not to mention Axis and Allies pieces everywhere).
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:34 PM on June 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

I love how there's a guy at around 1:00 watching who just decides "Ah, fuck this shit, same old guys flying around, Imma go get a sammich."

That was the same point where I closed my Youtube window, funnily enough. I have a very short attention sp - oooh, shiny!

How odd - I, too, closed the window after about a minute. I mean, this is so inexpressibly cool and my mind was awhirl, really. After a minute, though, I just closed the video. It struck me as odd that I'd do that with something I found so awesome, until I read the comments here.

Maybe it's because my brain actually got a little overloaded with the awesomeness of purely 3D dance.
posted by darkstar at 12:35 PM on June 14, 2011

Actually, I was wondering if this could eventually be done without the glass surround, so that they would totally appear to be levitating.

Maybe?
posted by valkyryn at 12:36 PM on June 14, 2011

Here's what happens when you put four guys in a wind tunnel

Oh, good. Because I was seriously worrying that it involved four guys being chopped into tiny bits by fan blades....
posted by schmod at 12:46 PM on June 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

I thought that was two guys and film effects; kept me watching past the 1 minute mark.

BUT, the mall/bowling alley wind tube thing ... I predict another comeback of the Marilyn Monroe white sundress.
posted by Surfurrus at 12:51 PM on June 14, 2011

HOW MUCH DO I HAVE TO PAY IN ORDER TO DO THIS?

Roundtrip ticket to Las Vegas -- $843.00.

Taxi cab from McCarran International Airport to Vegas Indoor Skydiving -- $25.00.

Single Flight - $75.00.

Experience of a lifetime -- Priceless.

posted by ericb at 1:00 PM on June 14, 2011

Just remember, the enemy's gate is down.
posted by SomaSoda at 1:12 PM on June 14, 2011 [4 favorites]

not to mention Axis and Allies pieces everywhere

At iFly they have warnings to remove everything from your pockets before flying. They also have a display of iPods, sunglasses, etc that have come out of pockets and gone through the fan. Well, what's left of them, at least.
posted by bitmage at 1:18 PM on June 14, 2011

They certainly handled that more gracefully than I would have.
posted by Iron Rat at 1:37 PM on June 14, 2011

what happens when you put four actual random guys off the street

Nausea + full face helmet + into the wind.

I wonder if the air recirculates? It might just go around and around.
posted by ryanrs at 1:39 PM on June 14, 2011

three-dimensional square dance

Cube dance?
posted by 2N2222 at 1:48 PM on June 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

SkyVenture is the same type of thing, here in the Denver Metro Area. I concur with bitmage, it's a PITA just to float level for a few seconds, much less try anything remotely close to the moves in the video.
posted by jazon at 1:54 PM on June 14, 2011

I've also done the Vegas Indoor Skydiving. I was incredibly bad at that. I mean, lower primate doing math kind of bad. Like a ferret on a leash kind of bad.

Fortunately it was filmed for later enjoyment by all of the friends visiting with me. Imagine wearing a very heavy winged drag suit and then getting blown in the air by wind at around 120 mph with a similar temp (in F). That's a lot of flow and it comes from outside and in the summer that gets pretty warm. The instructor even tried to hold me in place but I sucked at that too. Every time I "fell" I landed in a fetal position on the cushioned perimeter of the base. That pretty much sums up my self esteem regarding this experience as well.

(I blame the equipment).

(everyone else was awesome)
posted by lomcovak at 1:56 PM on June 14, 2011

If this turns out to be a put-on by a German blogger, I don't want to know about it.
posted by happyroach at 1:59 PM on June 14, 2011

The music was actually great for the video, but the back of my brain keeps telling me it should've been Daft Punk.
posted by palbo at 2:23 PM on June 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

This is really cool.
posted by Dominic. Allen at 2:42 PM on June 14, 2011

Wow. Anyone here looking to blow a spare couple million dollars on something awesome? Memail me.
posted by doublehappy at 2:56 PM on June 14, 2011

WANT WANT WANT WANT WANT WANT WANT WANT WANT and how kickass that they all just float right through the entrance at the end and walk away.
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 4:43 PM on June 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

echo target: "Now I want to see what happens when you put four actual random guys off the street in that thing."

I think that's the reason for the helmets.
posted by bwg at 6:13 PM on June 14, 2011

The Skyventure tunnels are the current state-of-the-art as the air can go very fast (180+ MPH) and the air extends all the way to the edges of the tunnel. The tunnel in Las Veags is a much older design and I don't recommend it as it's too easy to get hurt falling out of the air (trust me on this). One of the best Skyventure tunnels is the one in NH as the staff is amazing at getting everyone from novices to experts flying really well.

We -- my fellow skydiver friends and I - buy tunnel time by the hour, as it's a much better deal than by the minute. Four of us will typically split an hour -- taking 1 1/2 minute turns each -- at a rate of $670 - $900 per hour (divided by four). Sometimes multiple people will be in the tunnel at once, for each 1 1/2 minutes section, like in this video. (But we're NOT ANYWHERE near as good as these guys :-) The amazing thing about the tunnel is that in the course of an hour session you watch EVERYONE really improve their flying skills a lot. After all, 15 minutes of tunnel time is equivalent to the freefall part of 20 - 30 skydives. And yes, it's fricken' exhausting. Oh, and it may be the only sport that makes skydiving look "green." When the airspeed is turned up some of these tunnels draw almost 1,000,000 watts per hour in power! I highly recommend it!
posted by Dean358 at 8:06 PM on June 14, 2011 [4 favorites]

When the airspeed is turned up some of these tunnels draw almost 1,000,000 watts per hour in power!

I was wondering about that, but could not have imagined it would be so much. Wow.
posted by anigbrowl at 8:14 PM on June 14, 2011

There's no notation for 3D dance, for instance, unless they created one.

Really? I immediately thought of water ballet (and "mermaid" viewing pools) when watching this.
posted by Scram at 8:40 PM on June 14, 2011

Here are some of the same people doing a six way tunnel routine. Ignore the stupidity at the end of the video.
posted by Dean358 at 8:43 PM on June 14, 2011

Hmmm.. You might say draw 1,000,000 watts of power continuously for the duration of the session (an hour). A total of 1000 kWh of energy would be consumed. At 10 cents per kWh that would be about $100 worth of power. Or if we agree a gallon of gas has about 36.6 kWh of energy about three gallons of gas. yea, engineers rule..
posted by Captain Chesapeake at 8:50 PM on June 14, 2011

Here are some of the same people doing a six way tunnel routine. Ignore the stupidity at the end of the video.

The amazing thing is that most people never notice the gorilla fly through at the halfway point.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:53 PM on June 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

It's important to watch till the end – they fly out of the door!
posted by niceness at 5:23 AM on June 15, 2011