New York's 'Flying People' Become Instant Sensations

On Friday January 27th, the residents of the Big Apple witnessed something quite out of this world - Three men gracefully flying around the skies of Lower Manhattan.Turns out, they were not ballet dancers with super human powers, but cleverly camouflaged radio controlled airplanes.

The gimmick was the genius idea of Thinkmodo, a New York-based marketing company that specializes in concocting viral sensations to promote events. This recent one was created to publicize the release 'Chronicle', a movie about three high-school students who discover they have super powers that include, the ability to fly.

The three people planes each completed 6, five minute flights across the Hudson River. Though 'kite-like' in appearance and weight (just 4lbs each), the planes were actually sophisticated flying instruments that required some expert maneuvering to ensure a smooth flight. The company therefore summoned the experts from the Academy of Model Aeronautics, who put each radio-controlled aircraft through some rigorous testing, prior to the big event.

As you can imagine, the 'viral sensation' was a huge success, despite the fact that one of the  'flying' men seemed to lose his super power mid-flight and had to be fished out of New York City's Harbor Point. Fortunately for those of us who missed it, there is a great video that captures the salient moments.

This is not the first time Thinkmodo has come up with such a stunt. To promote the recent thriller 'Limitless', they released a video depicting a man using an invention to hack the large video screens that line New York City's Times Square. Wonder what they will think up of next!

Resources: movies.yahoo.com, dailymail.co.uk