Ornithopter

flight · inventions · biomimicry · engineering

Wings that flap. Unlike regular airplanes that use fixed wings, ornithopters copy how birds and bats fly by actually flapping their wings up and down to create lift and move forward.

Nature as the blueprint. Designers have studied birds, bats, and even insects for hundreds of years to understand how their wings work, then tried to recreate that flapping motion in human-made machines.

Two ways to power them. Some ornithopters use engines to power the flapping wings, while others rely on a pilot to pedal or move their body to make the wings go up and down.

Small and sometimes huge. Most ornithopters are about the same size as the animals they copy, but engineers have also built larger ones that a person can actually sit in and fly.

Still experimental. Ornithopters haven't become common aircraft like jets or helicopters, but inventors around the world keep testing new designs to make them work better.