Robot Bird

This is cooler than snot. I've been a major fan of ornithopters -- the technical term for robotic birds -- since I was a kid and got one of those cheap plastic flappy things at the state fair. This one is the first I've ever seen with a semi-realistic wing motion:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=wVhdx1DOc1g

This one has a more conventional ornithopter straight flapping wing, but it has some electronic flight controls:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-57367728-501465/watch-out-amazing-mechanical-bird-takes-flight/

If I had the time & money to build one, it would have the following features:

* feathers, that let air flow from the top but blocked it coming from the bottom (as real feathers do)
* a wing motion that contracted the wing surface on the upswing and expanded it on the downswing (as real wings do)
* a gyro to keep level flight in wind gusts

NoCoPilot wrote:

If I had the time & money to build one, it would have the following features:

* feathers, that let air flow from the top but blocked it coming from the bottom (as real feathers do)
* a wing motion that contracted the wing surface on the upswing and expanded it on the downswing (as real wings do)
* a gyro to keep level flight in wind gusts

Agreed.

That second clip reminds me of the quail we have here; their wings may not work exactly the way the mechanical bird's do, but its movements made me immediately think of the quail.

Whenever I hear the word ornithopter, I think of this.

Not this?

Well, now it will.

Barbarella, isn't it? (More of a hornythopter.)

I always think of Dune when I see or hear the word 'ornithopter.' Why yes, I am a geek, thanks for asking. Actually, here is something equally as cool that is semi-related. It turns out that squid can fly . . . backwards! WTF?

I'm missing the connection between Dune and ornithopter. Please elaborate.

Flying squid? That looks like a Mac screen saver.