It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Superman. It's actually two of those three and it was recently over Carlsbad.
Posted on YouTube Dec. 28, a video of an RC plane in the shape of Superman was captured on the cell phone of 27-year-old Kyle Gough, a Cal State Fullerton student who said he was cycling along the North County coast last week.
According to U-T San Diego, "Gough tracked the figure for a few minutes until he found the pilot, later identified as Otto Dieffenbach III."
The pilot is 82, and is getting more than his 15 minutes of fame.
Gough and his friend followed the soaring superhero to a stretch of beach where two men were operating its remote control. Superman was brought back to land for a quick battery change and when he took off again, Gough pulled out his cellphone to record the flight.
Initially, he wanted to show his father — “he’s a big Superman fan,” Gough explained — but eventually posted the video online. It’s since garnered more than 300,000 views on YouTube and liveleak.com.
Gough, who works as a security contractor and is a student at Cal State Fullerton, said he stayed at the beach for two hours talking to the man flying the superhero. He said the machine appeared custom-made — its legs moved individually as it flew, and even came with a cape.