Professor James DeLaurier and a team of students at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies achieved something that has fascinated humankind throughout much of history: sustained flight by a piloted ornithopter - an airplane with flapping wings that are mechanically operated.
The concept of an ornithopter, dreamed of by Leonardo da Vinci, among others, differs from standard fixed-wing aircraft because when flying its wings flap up and down in a manner similar to that of birds in flight. "It's an ancient dream, achieving flight with flapping wings," said
DeLaurier, a professor of aerospace engineering at U of T since 1974, who retired this summer.
Project Ornithopter began in 1986 when DeLaurier was able to turn his hobby of building model-sized ornithopters into a research project housed at UTIAS. Though the project had many stops and restarts over the years, by 1995 it had produced the ornithopter that finally flew last month at Downsview Park.
Equipped with a 24-horsepower engine and a model airplane turbo booster, the ornithopter flew for 14 seconds at an average speed of 88 km/h, in the process traveling a third of a kilometer. The machine was piloted by test pilot Jack Sanderson.
"It was sustained flight; no one can question that. It received help from the booster jet but the majority of the thrust was from the flapping wings," DeLaurier said. "When it did fly we were pretty happy. I was just hollering with joy."
The flight ended due to a stress-related failure in one section of the left wing. The ornithopter's nose and front wheel were damaged during landing.
DeLaurier hopes to receive funding to repair the ornithopter and continue with the research project. In the meantime, the ornithopter is on display at the Toronto Aerospace Museum in Downsview Park.
You can see several videos of the ornithopter in flight
here.
| Photo credit: David Cooper, Toronto Star |
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