Ornithopters

An ornithopter (from Greek ornithos "bird" and pteron "wing") is an aircraft that flies by flapping its wings. Designers seek to imitate the flapping-wing flight of birds, bats, and insects. Though machines may differ in form, they are usually built on the same scale as these flying creatures. Manned ornithopters have also been built, and some have been successful. The machines are of two general types: those with engines, and those powered by the muscles of the pilot.

Some early manned flight attempts may have been intended to achieve flapping-wing flight though probably only a glide was actually achieved. These include the purported flights of the 11th-century monk Eilmer of Malmesbury (recorded in the 12th century) and the 9th-century poet Abbas Ibn Firnas (recorded in the 17th century).Roger Bacon, writing in 1260, was also among the first to consider a technological means of flight. In 1485, Leonardo da Vinci began to study the flight of birds. He grasped that humans are too heavy, and not strong enough, to fly using wings simply attached to the arms. He therefore sketched a device in which the aviator lies down on a plank and works two large, membranous wings using hand levers, foot pedals, and a system of pulleys.

In 1841, an ironsmith kalfa (journeyman) Manojlo who "came to Belgrade from Vojvodina" attempted flying with a device described as an ornithopter ("flapping wings like those of a bird"). Refused by the authorities a permit to take off from the belfry of Belgrade Serbian Orthodox Cathedral, he clandestinely climbed to the rooftop of the Dumrukhana (Import Tax head office) and took off, landing in a heap of snow, and surviving.

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