David Copperfieldsecret - Flying ( see the movie )

Everyone knows how this trick looks! David goes up in the air above the stage, soars above it, turns over, flies through the rings and in the closed glass box and in the end flows in the air with a girl in his hands.
      People have been trying to reveal this mystery for many years, there have been a lot of interesting suppositions and they keep coming; the most popular version is the hauberk made of magnets, which David wears under his sweater; and there is a special device under the stage with the help of which Copperfield leaves the floor and goes a couple of meters up. Some even think, that David hypnotizes the whole audience during this trick and people simply don't notice, that his assistants almost carry him with their bare hands. Of course, all of these versions are false and even amusing.

In this article we'll go through David's Flying from the show, called "Flying: live the dream." If you have the video of this trick, please, prepare it for viewing; if not, you can find some fragments of it in this article.

1.Technology of Flying.

David flies with the help of special ropes; only few factories in the world are producing these ropes. They are cosmic factories in general but also one factory in Las Vegas produces such ropes, the thickness of one of which is a bit less than a millimeter and it holds more than 100 kg. In Moscow, at the Mitishinski aerospace factory, they showed us how they look and what they are used for. They are ideal for transportation and for use in space, because the ropes are very strong, though they are very thin and light. Their total thickness is about 2 cm (thin threads are tied together, making a rope) and they are able to bare a colossal load. But the thickness of each thread itself is almost unnoticeable from a slight distance. With the help of these very ropes David Copperfield flies.

David always flies against a background of the flapping light-blue cloth with silver vertical fragments. This background makes the ropes totally invisible for the audience, the same as a black background.

David uses only two ropes, which are attached to an acrobatic belt, fixed on his body and hidden under the black sweater.

There is a winch above the stage (the most expensive part of the trick). It's able to lift David with various speed and acceleration, i.e. smooth and unnoticeable. It's attached to special rails and it can move according to their flexes, turns and direction. Such devices are used in circus or in movies.

Two or three men operate the winch. One is responsible for the vertical lift-up, the other - for moving of the winch on the rails and the third one is just standing by. But David turns over himself, as far as the ropes are attached to the belt and David can easily correct his position in the air by bending forward or back.


2. Demonstration of the trick.

It's all clear with the technology of Flying.
Now let's go through the trick from the very beginning. David takes a girl and a man before the show. The girl is one of his assistants and the man is one of the spectators. David asks them to check a big glass box standing on the stage and a cover, which is nearby. This is just an ordinary box with an ordinary cover. Later we thoroughly describe the secret of them, and for now we will move on to the next one.

David lies on the stage on his back. In a couple of seconds he goes up in the air in the same position.

When he goes up high enough, he takes a vertical position by moves forward his center of gravity .

When David goes down, the ropes are in front of him (because he has just flied on his back), that is why he has to make some complicated circular motions with his hands, shifting the ropes behind his back.

Then he can go up in the air with his face down.

In that way he flies for some time, moving above the stage back and forth. The winch slides above the stage and David is always under the winch. We must say, that the steps, that he makes, standing on the ground, have been rehearsed for a hundred times, because if he makes a wrong move and turns up not directly under the winch, everyone will see how he swings in the air but this mustn't happen. One moment he goes up in the air and turns over. I wouldn't do that if I were him, because, firstly, we can see his axis of rotation (the place, where ropes are attached), secondly his legs go down in a clumsy way and there's nothing he can do about it, though the swinging is very slight.

How does he fly through the rings?

That's the main thing; take a close look at the animation. The thing is, that he doesn't go through them, because the rings are not passing above him, they go under in each case.

2- the position, in which David stays inside the box, always sideway to the audience; as far as the ropes are on both sides of him, he can't face the spectators. When the girl passes above David, he copies her steps (as a reflection in a mirror); she walks exactly between the two ropes. As far as the thickness of the cover and (as a result) the space between the ropes is pretty large, it's easy for her to pas between the ropes, without touching them.

Then David flies with the girl in his hands; it's all-simple here - each rope holds 100 kg, there are two and the total weight, that they can hold, makes about 200 kg. And the total weight of David and the girl together is barely 160 kg.

3. Additional information.Take a look at the illumination of the stage: there are high towers with projectors on both of it and, because of a slight fog, the light of them becomes visible, what hides the ropes that are also almost invisible.

This description of the trick matches the real one totally; before this article has been published our team had experienced the flight at the DK "MAI" in Moscow. The rehearsal was held behind closed doors only for the members of the team. We used the winch that was already fixed over the stage and bought are own ropes. Though you've got to be in perfect physical shape, to take part in this trick, almost every member of our crew could do it.

So everyone can fly as David Copperfield! To do that, you must have a strong will and enough money to buy the equipment.