The Canadian team behind the first sustained flight of an ornithopter flapping wings-powered aircraft believes the prospect of a manned craft is now real, despite video evidence showing the ...

Professor Emeritus James DeLaurier achieved something in early July that has fascinated humankind throughout much of history. DeLaurier and a team of students at the University of Toronto Institute ...

Flapping-wing robo-bird uses two tails to fly fast or slow Many readers will remember the MetaFly, a remote-control robotic insect that flies by actually flapping its wings. Well, its inventor is back ...

A drone prototype that mimics the aerobatic manoeuvres of one of the world's fastest birds, the swift, is being developed by an international team of engineers in the latest example of biologically ...

Flapping-wing ornithopter drones may potentially be more agile and energy-efficient than their fixed-wing counterparts, but most of them still can't loiter in one spot. A new model addresses that ...

A bird banking in a crosswind doesn't rely on spinning blades. Its wings flex, twist and respond instantly to its environment. Engineers at Rutgers University have taken a major step toward building ...

Flapping wings produce lift and thrust in bio-inspired aerial robots, leading to quiet, safe and efficient flight. However, to extend their application scope, these robots must perch and land, a feat ...

One of humankind’s dreams has always been to fly like a bird. For a hacker, an achievable step along the path to that dream is to make an ornithopter — a machine which flies by flapping its wings. An ...

Researchers have developed a method that allows a flapping-wing robot to land autonomously on a horizontal perch using a claw-like mechanism. The innovation could significantly expand the scope of ...

We have developed four-winged bird-like robots, called ornithopters, that can take off and fly with the agility of swifts, hummingbirds and insects. We did this by reverse engineering the aerodynamics ...

A drone prototype that mimics the aerobatic manoeuvres of one of the world's fastest birds, the swift, is being developed by an international team of engineers in the latest example of biologically ...