Intoducing the Flapper

[bradclark1]

And no it's not a new way of flushing your toilet.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1152395411588

[scandium]

That gets the scandium coolness award :up:

[snowsub]

It's good to see some payoff for a lot of hard work :up:

[The Avon Lady]

What's so impressive? These (http://www.janes.com/press/articles/pc060526_1.shtml) are more impressive, IMO. Now just imagine them in the wrong hands.

[bradclark1]

Whats impressive is they've been trying to fly like that for centuries and have never been able effect it. Stop trying to be a spoil sport. :)

[The Avon Lady]

Whats impressive is they've been trying to fly like that for centuries and have never been able effect it.
So, we're reverting to the Da Vinci standard. You ain't gonna get me into a flapping machine going trans-Atlantic. No sirree! :nope:

[TteFAboB]

But there are more impressive machines, the point is none of them fly. :rotfl:

Did Da Vinci's design had JET BOOSTERS anyway?

Sounds like cheating to me, I can fly flapping my arms too as long as I have a Jet turbine strapped on my back, but just like this plane, the landing would be rough, cross-wind or not.

[SUBMAN1]

Amazing that thing flew. I read about this a few times over the years. Saw a show about it on Discovery I think too. Never thought he would fly, but I guess he did it. Showed all those guys in the late 1800's that you 'can' make a flying flapping thingie! :p

-S

[SUBMAN1]

What's so impressive? These (http://www.janes.com/press/articles/pc060526_1.shtml) are more impressive, IMO. Now just imagine them in the wrong hands.

Thats not even near the same class, technicality, or even close to being as impressive as the flapping flying machine.

-S

[scandium]

I think the designer said it best:

"I hadn't planned on this taking most of my career, but I don't regret it," said DeLaurier. "It has been exciting and interesting. Also it's been a worthy project, a worthy quest. You know that age-old saying: `What's the meaning of life?' Quite frankly, life has meaning if you measure yourself against a worthy goal. And for an aerospace engineer — who loves aviation history — this has been a worthy goal."

Plus, as The Star points out, this concept goes all the way back to the Greek mythology of Daedalus and Icarus and man's eternal dream to one day fly as a bird does. :rock:

[Spoon 11th]

Ornithopters are cool. They just make hellish noise. The wings should be coated with owl feathers or something. This human size version is definately cheating since it has a jet engine. With stronger nano materials in the future I think we are going to see sailplanes with flapping wings. Man made albatrosses.

On an other thing would parrots be smart enough to pilot small hot air balloon if they are too lazy to fly themselves. Like that one dog I saw in California that uses skate board to move around.

[STEED]

Looks like a spot of fun that one. :)

[tycho102]

Looks like a static-wing design. It's never going to work without some kind of dynamic camber.

I imagine someone will invent a flexible polymer plastic with some kind of embedded semi-conductor dopant; perhaps even inside nano-tubes. Apply a voltage or mag-field and it'll stiffen and bend, driving down leading and trailing edge flaps for the upstroke, then relaxing the leading edge for the downstroke.

It's a start with what we've got, and interesting engineering.