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Da Vinci's Ornithopter Prepares For a Test Flight

Posted by Hemos on from the what-about-gurney-halleck dept.

Dirak writes "Over 500 years ago, Leonardo da Vinci conceptualized a self-powered flying machine that would achieve both lift and thrust with flapping wings alone and named it the "ornithopter". Hot on the heels of the 100th Anniversary of the Wright Brothers flight, and the recent X prize, a team of scientists from University of Toronto's Institute for Aerospace have taken on this challenge to make Leonardo's dream a reality."

2 of 213 comments (clear)

  1. GBTFYAD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    N/T

  2. Patents? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    This prove the importance of patents. Would Leonard have had a patent system in Italy at his time, he would have patented the technology. With the patent description we would have had the opportunity to build that thing a lot earlier and that would have completly changed our today world.
    That proves the importance of patents, and hence why extending them to software will also permit us to have access to more and better software technology faster.
    Of course what you just read is completly bogus, but I'm sure some people would think it to be right.