Ornithopter Flying Bird Kit. each (TS0233)
THE ORNITHOPTER CONSTRUCTION KIT
The Ornithopter or ‘Flying Bird’ is a construction kit suitable for upper primary age and older students. The kit comprises plastic parts, timber, bamboo, rubber band and coloured paper.
Its action is that of flapping wings that generate both lift and thrust.
When assembled the Ornithopter is 350 mm in length and 420mm across the wingspan.
Models may vary in colour and images printed on the paper wings and body.
ORINITHOPTERS AND FAPPING WING FLIGHT
Leonardo daVinci was fascinated by the idea of human powered flight and his early sketches show conceptual ideas of his ‘Orntotero’.
It should also be noted that Otto Lilienthal as early as 1889 had described the manner in which flapping wings generate thrust and lift and his ideas are still considered as ground breaking even to this day.
Flapping wing theory and designs are still considered to be in their infancy with continued research being made across the science and technology community.
Interested students might consider investigating what is claimed to be the world’s smallest radio controlled Ornithopter, the Avitron V2.0 http://www.rcflyingbird.com/
Another interesting site is that of Berkeley Computer Science in the USA. http://robotics.eecs.berkeley.edu/~ronf/Ornithopter/
