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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."
Pardon my engineering ignorance, but is this any more efficient than the current style of pulling a fixed-wing craft through the air with a separate engine? My gut instinct says no, but I've been suprised before. Thoughts?
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Yes, "modern" technology is more efficient, but this does a great deal to teach us about structural engineering in highly unconventional designs. I doubt Ornithopters will ever be popular (except maybe as a sideshow at larger fairs and airshows) but as a case study for engineers... It would be superb!
Engineers at schools, colleges and even some Universities tend to build "nice, safe" projects. Stuff that teaches you how to bolt things together - if you're lucky. A good project should be hard enough that engineers are going to fail at least once, because you learn far more by failing - and more again by catching problems before they turn into failure.
It is obvious now that Ornithopers are hard engineering problems. As such, even if they have no other value, they would make superb educational devices.
Inventions like this are never wasted - only opportunities can be wasted.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
True. The beliefs that people of the past were primative know-nothings and that we are now on the verge of knowing everything are both highly overrated.
You name another notable historical individual known as "Da Vinci" and I'll grant your point.
In Repressive Burma, it's not just your connection that dies. slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=314547&cid=20819199
Yeah, current technology would probably be a lot more efficient, but that's missing the point. You know, that point where they're building Da Vinci's contraption devised hundreds of years ago. ;)
But as far as current technology goes, I've seen some people flying a commercial looking RC ornithopter at a park, and it, while not "real", was pretty cool darn cool.
A wheel on an axle is notoriously more efficient than these "legs" things.
Until you try to go up stairs. DARPA is working on building dog-like robots with legs to carry a soldier's gear. Wheels are good only on flat surfaces. Ever try to push a wheelchair up a rocky slope? They make wheelchair ramps for a reason. Sometimes nature DOES get it right.
Hmm... even if flapping wings are more effective than fixed wings, they can't scale too well or there would be more large flying things about, no?
They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
The flapping wings of a bird are the result in what is called a homologus structure, since they were once arms and nature needed an easy way to get them off the ground, it is far easier to evolve feathers sticking out of an arm than it is to evolve a propeller or a jet engine. Although it is apparant that our technology is not as efficient, having not evolved on the basis of energy concervation, with modern engineering it is possible that we could make something more efficeint.
Octopi have jet engines, just not ones that push air.
;)
The only thing that man has invented that I've not seen an equivalent of in nature is the CRT. No animal needs to project light on a screen, much less with a stream of electrons controlled by magnets. Unless you consider humans to be animals.