Ornithopter

Ornithopter is an aircraft that flies by flapping its wings. Designers seek to imitate the flapping-wing flight of birds, bats, and insects. Though machines may differ in form, they are usually built on the same scale as these flying creatures. Manned ornithopters have also been built, and some have been successful. The machines are of two general types: those with engines, and those powered by the muscles of the pilot.

Why flapping wings?
Many people like to build and fly ornithopters, just because ornithopters are amazing! There are practical benefits as well: flapping wings potentially offer improved efficiency, better maneuverability, and reduced noise compared with the rotary-driven airplanes and helicopters. The resemblance to a real bird can also be useful for certain missions such as spying or for keeping birds away from airport runways.

Applications:

Right now ornithopters are used mainly for fun and for research. But there are some uses of this type of drone.

• used for military applications such as aerial reconnaissance without alerting the enemies that they are under surveillance. Several ornithopters have been flown with video cameras on board, some of which can hover and maneuver in small spaces.These ornithopter mainly uses by spies for information gathering.

• used to scare away birds that could damage the engines of airplanes.

• used for forestry and wild life survey.

• used for traffic monitoring.