Now this is something to flap your gums about …
10th July 2006
Remember the ornithopters that welcomed Zeb, Deety, Jake and Hilda to Barsoom in “The Number of the Beast?”
Well, they’ve made one that really works:
Yesterday Dr. James DeLaurier, an aeronautical engineer and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto’s Institute for Aerospace Studies, fulfilled a lifelong dream, seeing his manned mechanical flapping-wing airplane, or ornithopter, fly — a dream first imagined by Leonardo da Vinci.
And with the successful flight DeLaurier has been lucky enough to touch what many describe as the Holy Grail of aeronautical design, achieving a place for himself, his team of volunteers and students in aviation history.
The flapper, as it’s affectionately known, sustained flight over about a third of a kilometre for 14 seconds at about 10:20 a.m. before being hit by a crosswind and almost flipping over, damaging the nose and front wheel on the runway at Downsview Park.
If you read into the article, you find that the flapping wings get a boost from a rocket. I dunno. Strapping a rocking to an ornithopter kinda sounds like strapping a warp drive to covered wagon.