It’s a Bird-Plane!

Via See You at Enceladus, a Canadian team has succeeded in making a flapping-wing airplane:

Yesterday Dr. James DeLaurier, an aeronautical engineer and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto’s Institute for Aerospace Studies, fulfilled a lifelong dream, seeing his manned mechanical flapping-wing airplane, or ornithopter, fly ? a dream first imagined by Leonardo da Vinci.

And with the successful flight DeLaurier has been lucky enough to touch what many describe as the Holy Grail of aeronautical design, achieving a place for himself, his team of volunteers and students in aviation history.

The flapper, as it’s affectionately known, sustained flight over about a third of a kilometre for 14 seconds at about 10:20 a.m. before being hit by a crosswind and almost flipping over, damaging the nose and front wheel on the runway at Downsview Park.

I’m not sure what the point is, but a flapping-wing airplane (or ornithopter) is pretty cool. There’s probably video of the flight somewhere, but I can’t get to the Toronto group’s web site, so you’ll have to find it yourself.