Eye on Science, Science Blog, Michael D. Lemonick, TIME

Holy Ornithopter!


DAVID COOPER / TORONTO STAR / ZUMA
The ornithopter, a mechanical flapping wing plane aproaches the runway in Downsview, Canada yesterday making aviation history for sustaining a flight over a third of a kilometer for 14 seconds.

You've seen them in the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci and in those improbably speeded-up film clips from the 1920s, but until last week, nobody had actually taken off and flown in an ornithopter--that is, an aircraft that flies by flapping its wings, more or less like a bird. But last Saturday, James DeLaurier, a retired professor of aeronautical engineering at the University of Toronto, achieved a career-long dream as he watched "the flapper," an ornithopter he'd been working on for more than a decade (and if you count his lifelong dreams of someday building one, ever since he was a teenager), take off and fly for 14 seconds. It may not sound like much, but the Wright Brothers' first successful flight in 1903 lasted for only 12 seconds. "I would have felt like a coward if I had this chance to pursue it and I didn't," he told the Toronto Star.

The next stop for the flapper, which sustained some damage when it made a hard landing, will be the  Aerospace Museum at Downsview Park, near Toronto. But while ornithopters may have some military and conservation applications (small, remotely operated ones can be made to look like birds, thus allowing them to penetrate unnoticed behind enemy lines or among endangered birds for surveillance), they're not likely to be flapping down in an airport near you anytime soon. They're mechanically amazing, but they could never be efficient enough or fly smoothly enough to carry passengers in any practical way.

Reader Comments (3)

Sanjay Jogi:

I see this subject with my view bothering less about calculation of physics laws.
Flying like birds is very possible the only thing is to learn more closely with the bigger bird and calculating the ratio with a human being resulting to say that this is the way to fly like bird and over all with human power.
Very small amount of people are capable to understand about flying with flapping wing gadget so if there is any discouraging answer comes from these most of the people, we don't mind.
Hope reader might understand.
Thanks.
Sanjay Jogi

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lolo Author Profile Page:

thanks ,, this subject is very important .

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مرسى الحب


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Eye On Science

TIME contributing writer Michael D. Lemonick fills you in on what's hot, what's cool, what's controversial and what's just plain silly in the world of science. Comments encouraged.

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