Flying Panties to Buzz Tokyo Skies

File under “Only in Japan”. On March 6th, if you are in the Akihabara district of Tokyo and you look up, you’ll see hundreds of pairs of girls’ panties. No, you haven’t shrunken into a tiny, homoncular, up-skirt pervert. Instead, you will be “enjoying” the launch of a thousand ornithopters fashioned from underwear.

Ornithopters are flying machines which flap their wings instead of spinning a propellor, and these panty-copters are powered by rubber bands. You will be able to buy a kit and send your own pair of panties into the Tokyo skies. We’d suggest making your own, but the idea is a little too disgusting.

It’s a publicity stunt, of course, and it will promote Japanese manga cartoon Sora no Otoshimono (What Fell from the Sky). The ornithopters will be launched as part of a larger event, the Sky Festival, which takes place down Akihabara way on that day. The Sky Festival will also see thousands of other model flying machines buzzing the heavens. If you are these, take photos and send them in to the Gadget Lab, and we’ll post them here.

Rumors that used panty-thopters will be packaged by schoolgirls and sold in vending machines are unfounded.