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Original inception dates back to Leonardo da Vinci, but it is not until recently that we have been able to achieve these flight characteristics on small scales.
by adolph 5y ago
Original inception dates back to Leonardo da Vinci, but it is not until recently that we have been able to achieve these flight characteristics on small scales.
I wonder what is meant by recently.
The first ornithopters capable of flight were constructed in France. Jobert in 1871 used a rubber band to power a small model bird.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ornithopter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ornithopter
I think the work would also be improved by a mention of bio-inspired work on the PRANDTL-D wing.
The Armstrong team (supported by a large contingent of NASA Aeronautics Academy interns) built upon the 1933 research of the German engineer Ludwig Prandtl to design and validate a scale model of a non-elliptical loaded wing that reduces drag and increases efficiency. The team also applied these concepts to improve propeller blades.
https://technology-afrc.ndc.nasa.gov/featurestory/prandtl-wing-design https://technology-afrc.ndc.nasa.gov/featurestory/prandtl-wi...
- pvg 5y agoFor some reason I'd mostly seen Pénaud's model in popular accounts but googling Jobert landed me at a site that has a bunch of illustrations from Progress in Flying Machines (1894) that shows what they all looked like. Jobert's first: https://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/i/Chanute/library/photos/Prog_Fig16.gif https://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/i/Chanute/library/p... And the whole lot: https://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/i/Chanute/library/Prog_Illustrations.html https://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/i/Chanute/library/P...
- phendrenad2 5y agoLeonardo da Vinci's designs weren't ornithopters, or even anything like real birds. They were fixed-wing gliders with fanciful bat-like shapes for stylistic reasons.
- Gravityloss 5y agoIf you construct a fabric+wood ribs wing, it will easily look bat-like. Many early airplanes were like that too.
- bryanrasmussen 5y ago>They were fixed-wing gliders with fanciful bat-like shapes for stylistic reasons. My understanding is they were commissioned by playboy Milanese nobleman intent on bringing down the Borgia crime family, whose parents had been knifed down in an alley in front of him when still a child after exiting a wonderful setting of the Magnificat composed by Gaffurius.
- ccozan 5y agoWait, is this the _original_ Batman origin story?
- robbedpeter 5y agoI'd be very wary about asserting stylistic intent to da Vinci when it comes to engineering endeavors. Many of his architectural designs were thought fanciful and entirely unfeasible until someone actually built it, or built it with the right materials. I would hazard that there is a lot of thoughtful consideration that went into the ornithopter designs, to the extent that a breakthrough or major insight lies waiting for anyone able to decipher or parallel da Vinci's reasoning.