Solar-powered Venus ornithopter

Really cool Russian idea:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrzG7...eature=related
Starts at the 33 second point in the video.

Pat

Pat Flannery wrote:
Really cool Russian idea:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrzG7...eature=related
Starts at the 33 second point in the video.

Pat

Hmm...

Bird wing flapping is a bit more complicated than simply raising the
wings up and down. The wings need to twist about their long axis as well
if there's to be propulsion.

Sylvia.

Sylvia Else wrote:
Hmm...

Bird wing flapping is a bit more complicated than simply raising the
wings up and down. The wings need to twist about their long axis as well
if there's to be propulsion.

Get one of these, wind it up, and have fun:
http://www.amazon.com/Schylling-NTN-.../dp/B000ELORZO
I had a earlier version of one of these back in the early 1990's and
flew it over the head of one of my friend's two-year-old nephews.
"Vird! Vird!" he yelled in awe, and still remembered it in joy a decade
later.
Nowadays, of course, the Tim Bird is old hat, and the giant robotic
dragonfly rules the skies, like its earlier organic form did in the
Permian age:
http://www.animalpicturesarchive.com...id=2&did=27063
http://www.uncrate.com/men/gear/toys...-rc-dragonfly/
"Vird! Vird!" the little waif would have no doubt said if he had seen
one of these cyber-dragon-flies instead of the Tim Bird fluttering
towards him, unaware of the fact that it was intent on ripping the flesh
off of his face as raw material for its exotic fuel cell technology.

"Live and learn" as they say.

Pat

Pat Flannery wrote:
Sylvia Else wrote:
Hmm...

Bird wing flapping is a bit more complicated than simply raising the
wings up and down. The wings need to twist about their long axis as
well if there's to be propulsion.

Get one of these, wind it up, and have fun:
http://www.amazon.com/Schylling-NTN-.../dp/B000ELORZO
I had a earlier version of one of these back in the early 1990's and
flew it over the head of one of my friend's two-year-old nephews.
"Vird! Vird!" he yelled in awe, and still remembered it in joy a decade
later.
Nowadays, of course, the Tim Bird is old hat, and the giant robotic
dragonfly rules the skies, like its earlier organic form did in the
Permian age:
http://www.animalpicturesarchive.com...id=2&did=27063
http://www.uncrate.com/men/gear/toys...-rc-dragonfly/
"Vird! Vird!" the little waif would have no doubt said if he had seen
one of these cyber-dragon-flies instead of the Tim Bird fluttering
towards him, unaware of the fact that it was intent on ripping the flesh
off of his face as raw material for its exotic fuel cell technology.

"Live and learn" as they say.

Pat


With loose fabric on the wings there is a net twisting effect. That's
not the way the video portrayed it though.

Sylvia.

Sylvia Else wrote:

With loose fabric on the wings there is a net twisting effect. That's
not the way the video portrayed it though.

The video seemed to show it moving forward by flexing the whole wing
from the base outwards, sort of like a manta ray swimming through water.

Pat

"Nomen Nescio" wrote in message
...
"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
dakotatelephone...
Really cool Russian idea:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrzG7...eature=related
Starts at the 33 second point in the video.

Pat

Yeah, computer generated animations and wild idea drawingboard stuff
are ussually impressive....until they have to build it. And then it
doesn't work.

There's lots of Russian dream-hardware in that video, such as PAK-FA
("Raptorski"), and the rest is all Soviet-era crap (Tu-160) from the
70's and 80's. The solar-powered Venus Ornithopter is some wild idea
from a Russian engineer who had a little too much vodka, if you ask me.


Let's send 'em some of these remote control beauties, video at the bottom.
http://www.aviationexplorer.com/remo...2_RC_movie.htm
I wonder if the guy ever got it to land?





Let's just say that I'll be very surprised if the Phobos-Grunt mission
gets to Mars in one piece.

Pat Flannery wrote:
Sylvia Else wrote:

With loose fabric on the wings there is a net twisting effect. That's
not the way the video portrayed it though.

The video seemed to show it moving forward by flexing the whole wing
from the base outwards,

That's what it looked like.

sort of like a manta ray swimming through water.

A Manta ray's wing is presumably similar to a bird's in being stiffer at
the front than the back, resulting in the required twisting.

Sylvia.

On Sun, 30 Aug 2009 19:22:02 -0500, Pat Flannery
wrote:

Really cool Russian idea:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrzG7...eature=related
Starts at the 33 second point in the video.

Pat


Why should they use such relatively young and maybe not mature
technology (ornithopter) In stead of well proven simple prop driven
craft ?

Makes the vid look cooler ?

Aglooka

aglooka wrote:

Why should they use such relatively young and maybe not mature
technology (ornithopter) In stead of well proven simple prop driven
craft ?

Makes the vid look cooler ?

That's probably what it comes down to in the end, although robotic
swimming fish are all the rage right now also instead of using things
with props: http://www.reuters.com/article/scien...52J1RY20090320

Pat