Nature has been engineered to perfection. Man has always tried to come closer to, and replicate, Nature. Whenever we ‘look-up’, there is only thing that amazes us: birds.
We at IIT Madras don’t just stop by ‘looking-up’; we look down to ground reality and try to look-back to the sky. We are always inspired by horizon, where the sky meets the earth. We always believe that dreams and reality are synonymous. We are envisaging on building an aircraft which tries to mimic the way a bird flies: yes, by flapping its wings!
An Ornithopter or ornitotero - like Leonardo da Vinci termed them - is an aircraft heavier than air, which flies like a bird by flapping its wings. An Ornithopter is essentially a mechanical bird. The special feature lies in the wings that do not only generate lift but also thrust.
Well, the first question that any one gets is, why doesn’t the up-stoke cancel the down-stroke?!
The wings essentially have a fixed inner part and a flexible outer part. During flapping, the wings flex in a way to produce minimum negative lift during the up-stroke. The inner part always acts like a normal conventional aircraft wing, producing lift at all times.
The flapping is achieved from a gear assembly powered by an electric motor. The tail acts as a control surface giving both roll and yaw motions.