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Da Vinci's Ornithopter Prepares For a Test Flight
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."
they've final got around to starting
See your sig here
Currently, only pilots made of balsa wood can fly this thing.
It's a bird! It's a plane! No! It's an Or-ni-thop-ter!
Doesn't make for much good comedy. They should get Paul McCarthney as a test pilot and call it "Wings". Ha. Sorry.
I don't think it will work. I think that the human power to weight ratio is too small to move enough air at sea level to lift a body. Regardless of any magical gearing or lever action..
Cool! Amazing Toys.
Why bother even casting it? Sure, it's 0 Mana, but it's still a 0/2 Flying Artifact. Give me a break. What are you gonna do? Enchant it? Oooh, don't hurt me.
Oh wait, you mean in real life. Ahhhh.... *whistling*
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
Handy things dictionaries. That's the last time I'll go to a ornithologist for a check-up!
This is very true. My buddy Ralph Da Vinci goes on rants about this all the time.
You just watch. They'll get the Pope to sponsor an Enduring Renewal, while secretly funding a Goblin Bombardment in Iraq. And once they have the Fruity Pebbles combo going...
We need to fund U.S. research of a Disenchant before they can acquire a Counterspell!!!
Libertarians somehow believe that private businesses should be stronger than governments but weaker than individuals.
What, you mean this 'wilderness' thing isn't flattened and paved?!? Bah, so much for equal opportunity and government mandated accessibility laws!
This is not a sig.
They tried and failed?
They tried and died.
Sorry... just trying to keep up the obvious Dune undertones.
My sig sucks.
Wait till the Royal Canadian Air Force gets hold of this. It'll catapult them from the middle ages into the 15'th century.
Oh, and by the way, nature did come up with the "fixed wing" solution to flying. It's called a hawk. ;) Sparrows fly by flapping. Hawks sometimes fly by flapping, but have discovered the more efficient solution of gliding. However, when gliding a hawk isn't as maneuverable as the flapping sparrow, though it can go faster. So, in a way the flapping versus fixed wing methods differ the same way as the legs versus wheels method. One may be more efficient, but the other is more maneuverable (and may be a better solution depending on the exact problem).
;)
I have yet, though, to see nature come up with a jet engine.
If God intended creatures to fly, He would have given them flappy thingies to.. oh.. nevermind
I have a better idea. See I've made these wings out of wax. So far I've only had one problem with them . . . . :)