Sunday, July 09, 2006

Aviation history is made by ornithopter

ornithopterYesterday Dr. James DeLaurier, an aeronautical engineer and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto's Institute for Aerospace Studies, fulfilled a lifelong dream, seeing his manned mechanical flapping-wing airplane, or ornithopter, fly - a dream first imagined by Leonardo da Vinci.

With the successful flight, DeLaurier has been lucky enough to touch what many describe as the Holy Grail of aeronautical design, achieving a place for himself, his team of volunteers and students in aviation history.
via Toronto Star | digg story

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Damn, that's straight out of Dune!

Anonymous said...

sweet!

some early early videos at

http://www.ornithopter.net/index_e.html

db