June 11, 2010 — If you’ve attended EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, chances are you’ve seen it and wondered exactly what it was as it traversed the grounds, flapping its “wings.”
It is the Hay family ornithopter, complete with Steve Hay driving it and his wife, Joan, usually decked out in fur and wearing a horned helmet, standing on top.
But now the whole country can see it. The Hays and their ornithopter are featured in a U.S. Cellular commercial. The commercial gives Steve’s phone number, and tells you to call him if you have questions about the contraption or need help building your own ornithopter. That’s because every call he gets is free.
Steve said he usually gets 100 phone calls a day because of the TV commercial, but some days, the number has been around 200. “I don’t talk to everyone,” he said. “I don’t have time for that. It depends on what I’m doing and how many I can answer.”
The funniest phone calls are the people who just laugh, he said. “They never thought that a real person would answer the phone so they just start giggling. Others hang up because they are so surprised they didn’t get a recording. But then I get people who ask all about the ornithopter — what it is made out of, when I built it, or how fast it goes.”
Steve said one caller recognized the engine in the ad, and wanted to talk about that. But the man said he was very sick in the hospital, and asked if he could call back when he got better. Another time, a young boy called and wanted to know all about the ornithopter and how it worked.
“We talked for quite a while,” Steve recalled. “The next day, his mother called to say thank you for spending all the time with her son.”
The Hays said they were chosen for the TV commercial after seeing an announcement on the Internet, advertising for U.S. Cellular users in the Midwest who did something unusual or strange. They sent in some photos, went for an interview, and were selected for the commercial.
The 30-second commercial was filmed in September 2009 and started airing in March 2010.
Although the TV commercial keeps them busy answering the phone, Steve said they’re glad they did it. “I’ve really enjoyed talking to a lot of neat people.”
Steve said he plans to bring the ornithopter back to AirVenture this year. “Thirty years ago I had this gasoline engine sitting there and decided to build it into something. But I never thought it would last so long.”
The ornithopter isn’t the first thing Hay has built. He and his brother, Jim, now deceased, built the replica engine that powered the Wright Flyer re-creation for EAA’s Countdown to Kitty Hawk celebration in December 2003.
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The Hay ornithopter makes its way through the crowds at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2008, as Joan Hay waves to the people below. Photo credit: Jaclyn Zwerg, EAA
Joan and Steve Hay sit in their Lake Geneva, Wisconsin home and talk about the ornithopter in a scene from the
U.S. Cellular TV commercial.
Steve Hay drives his ornithopter down the street in a scene from the U.S. Cellular ad.
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