Ornithopters?

[Pagan priest]

One of my son's movies is Castle in the Sky. In it, there are some pirates that fly little four winged "flaptors". While it appears that these things can hover, the motive power is clearly the flapping of the wings. As I recall, Dune also made use of such devices.

When designing such a device, how would you stat out this transmission type? I don't see it as being as good as a propeller, but how much less efective is it?

Thank you for your help.

 

[Malenfant]

Are those even a viable means of transport in a standard atmosphere? (I could imagine them working in a dense one though)

 

[Pagan priest]

I saw what looked like ornithopters in the trailer for Sky Captain and the World of Tommorow, so they are apparently available at tech level 5.

 

[Ran Targas]

I think the real advantages of an ornithopter (as depicted in the Dune books) to conventional aircraft are a) the variable geometry wing and b) vectored thrust.

The combination of both allow (atleast in Dune) for the pilot to have a combination of VTOL, acrobatic, and supersonic flight capabilities.

As described by Frank Herbert, ornithopters can cup their wings to increase lift or tuck them to reduce drag using overlapping, individually controlled panels. These "feathers" provide all the advantages of a bird's wing with jet propulsion to boot. So far, no one has brought that vision to the screen yet though.

 

[tjoneslo]

I wrote rules for Ornithopters in the forthcoming Traveller's Aide: In the Clouds. The short version: They are less effective than propellers or helicopters as the mechanism for flapping the wings is much more complex. The can hover like helicopters and (in theory) fly faster than one.