Life Lines

To fly like a bird (continued)

Posted by Dr. Dolittle on April 13, 2012
(4)
More »

As fun as it was to think about developing wings to fly like a bird, physics always wins. In case you haven’t yet figured it out, the prior video was of course a fake, albeit a really entertaining fake.

That being said, here is the first ornithopter able to sustain flight. The aircraft was created by a student in the Engineering PhD program at The University of Toronto, Todd Reichert in 2010. It is human-powered and the wings are designed to mechanically flap like those of a bird:

Source
University of Toronto News

(4)
More »

Comments

  1. #1 Zippy the Pinhead
    April 13, 2012

    The size and shape are reminiscent of the MIT Daedalus plane. (Much much larger than the birdman wing.) The Daedalus used a human powered (leg power – bicycle transmission) propeller for thrust. I don’t see a mechanism for forward thrust in this design but it must be provided by the wings somehow?

  2. #2 t-shirt design
    April 14, 2012

    Nice i like it and what to fly :)

  3. #3 Michael Kelsey
    April 14, 2012

    The takeoff thrust was provided by the chase vehicle doing the filming: you can see the paired cables in the bottom center of the frame from 1:13 to 1:41, when they’re released.

    From the angle of filming, it wasn’t clear whether the flapping induced had much thrust, or if it was only providing lift while the vehicle glided forward.

  4. #4 yemek tarifleri
    May 16, 2012

    The takeoff thrust was provided by the chase vehicle doing the filming: you can see the paired cables in the bottom center of the frame from 1:13 to 1:41, when they’re released.