Ornithopter

Man has long been fascinated with birds and their ability to fly. Before the Wright Brothers achieved their first heavier-than-air controlled flight in 1903, hundreds of men and women attempted to fly in gliders, airships, balloons and other fantastic innovations. As early as the 15th century, Leonardo da Vinci studied the flight and wing structure of birds. His detailed design of a human-powered ornithopter - an aircraft deriving its thrust and lift from flapping wings - was based on these studies. Although he never actually flew the machines he designed, his ideas were replicated and modified throughout the next four centuries. In 1871, Alphonse Penaud successfully flew a rubber-powered model ornithopter - the Planophore - for a distance of 181 feet in 11 seconds. Since then, many other inventors have developed ornithopters. This turn-of-the-century photograph pictures Arnold Coblitz in his ornithopter. The engraving - Flugmaschine - depicts an ornithopter constructed and tested unsuccessfully by Swiss watchmaker Jakob Degen living in Vienna in the early 1800s. Even today, a team based at the University of Toronto's Institute for Aerospace Studies is conducting research on ornithopters.