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September 28 2006 For more information: Todd Scott - Himmelrich, Inc. "Flugtag" Exhibit Now Open at Maryland Science Center Have you ever imagined building your own flying machine and soaring above the crowd? Through Friday, October 20, 2006, the Maryland Science Center will let visitors experience the flying successes and painful failures of homemade aircraft in a new exhibition, Built By Amateurs: The Quest for Human-Powered Flight. The exhibit was designed and created by the energy drink maker Red Bull, to promote its "Flugtag" flying machine competition in Baltimore on Saturday, October 21, 2006. To create the sensation of flying over the crowd, the exhibition features a large interactive simulation called the "Playmotion First Person Flyer," where participants can actually control their own flight while standing on an inclined platform facing a huge projection of the Inner Harbor. Each flight begins with a "launch" as high powered fans blow air against the contestant. By using their arms as wings, visitors can tilt, lean, and flap their way over the simulated landscape and feel like they are flying over the Inner Harbor! Built By Amateurs: The Quest for Human-Powered Flight also features a runway complete with take-off lights and a flying machine. The mock craft is built completely from household materials, including tennis racket propellers, and demonstrates the ingenuity of Red Bull Flugtag pilots. Visitors can use their own creativity to build virtual aircrafts to see which designs fly - and which don't! - at game kiosks that stand against a backdrop that recreates the Inner Harbor skyline. Other stations allow small groups of children to work together to manipulate 3D model airplanes to learn about roll, pitch and yaw and other dynamic flight concepts to see what forces are acting on a plane in flight, and how understanding these concepts allows pilots to maneuver their planes. Baltimore's Red Bull Flugtag (literally German for "flying day") will be held on Saturday, October 21, 2006, and will feature 24 teams from around the world competing to determine whose human-powered flying machine can fly the farthest. Teams are given two minutes to perform original skit to win over the crowd and impress the judges, before pushing, dragging and ultimately launching their homemade inventions from a 25-foot high deck in front of the Maryland Science Center, and splash-landing in the Inner Harbor. The first Red Bull Flugtag took place in Vienna, Austria, in 1991. Since then, more than 35 Flugtags have been held around the world from Ireland to San Francisco attracting over 300,000 spectators. The Red Bull Built By Amateurs: The Quest for Human-Powered Flight is free with paid admission to the Maryland Science Center, and is open during museum hours each day leading up to Baltimore's Red Bull Flugtag on Saturday, October 21, 2006. The Maryland Science Center is located at 601 Light Street at Baltimore's Inner Harbor. For more information and tickets, visit www.marylandsciencecenter.org or call the 24-Hour Information Line at 410-685-5225.
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