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| Science & Technology |
| The Ornithopter Flies! |
| 2006-07-09 |
| For an aeronautical engineer it was the perfect day and a perfect end to a quest that has consumed his life for more than 30 years. 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... This peculiar vision has captivated aeronauts longer than any other. Fixed wing aircraft were always seen as somehow "cheating". |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #3 20 pounds? The Teratorns were around up to 6000 years ago and weighed 120-300 pounds. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentavis_magnificens |
| Posted by: red river 2006-07-09 18:22 |
| #2 re: 20 lbs limit. Condors? |
| Posted by: Oldspook 2006-07-09 17:36 |
| #1 There's reason why birds that flap their wings to fly max out around twenty pounds. It's mass versus surface area. I regularly see the big black cockatoos we get around here and I am always struck by how awkwardly they fly - stiff winged, long glides - because they are close to that 20 pound limit. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2006-07-09 17:07 |