Photo of Nathan Chronister's Phoentx Ornithopter

This model is called the "Phoenix". It's an "ornithopter", meaning a device that flies by flapping wings. In airplanes and helicopters, the driving airfoils have a rotary motion. In an ornithopter, the driving airfoils have an oscillating motion, usually up and down. Some ornithopters can hover, but most of them rely on forward motion to produce lift, more like an airplane. There is some separation of function, with the outer part of the wing providing most of the thrust, and the inner part acting more like the fixed wing of an airplane. Ornithopters have been around a long time. The first successful ornithopters were built in France, as early as 1870. Originally, the ornithopter was seen as a way for people to fly, but it proved much more difficult than the airplane. It was not until 1942 that a manned, engine-powered ornithopter was successfully flown. Potentially, flapping wings offer better fuel efficiency and greater maneuverability compared with airplanes and helicopters. However, the flapping wings result in a bumpy ride. For that reason, practical applications will be limited to unmanned roles such as the tiny spy-robots being used by the military. Unmanned aircraft are expected to become increasingly important in the future. Freeflight hobbyists have been building ornithopters for a long time also. Several of the experimental models built in the 1870s were powered by rubber band. By the 1930s, ornithopter plans appeared in some of the model airplane magazines such as Aeromodeller and Model Airplane News. In Germany, they even had a competition going for engine-powered freeflight ornithopters, and the record was over 16 minutes! Through the 1970s and 1980s, innovators like Ken Johnson, Frank Kieser, and Roy White achieved ever-increasing performance from their rubber-powered ornithopters. White holds the AMA record of 21 min, 45 sec. Unfortunately, the competition designs were becoming increasingly complex, and even the few kits that were available, such as Lew Gitlow's "Flapping Flyer", had a complicated structure and took maybe a few days to build. When I first got involved with ornithopters, around 1990, I saw the need for a simpler design that would make it easier for people to get started with these fascinating flapping-wing models. My "Freebird" design, which appeared in a 1993 issue of the Ornithopter Modelers Society newsletter, was an early attempt.

Photo of the head of Nathan's Phoenix

Over the years, I've found new ways to simplify the design even more. The fuselage consists of only two pieces of balsa wood, and the whole model can be built in just an hour or two. Adjusting it for flight is also simple. Even though being "easy to build" was the overriding design criterion, and as a result, it's quite heavy, this ornithopter has nice flying characteristics, and it can fly for up to a minute. The next step was to make it look more like a real bird. For this, I extended the fuselage forward a bit, and I attached a piece of craft foam cut to the shape of a bird's beak. (I had to refer to some field guides to find out the actual shape of a bird's head.) I found some realistic eyes that are made for teddy bears. When you hold the model in your hand, it may be just a flat, profile design, but when you see those eyes staring back at you, it comes alive. Though I have to say, it might not have the same effect on an airplane, like that Guardian. Both the foam and the eyes can be found along the far right wall at Dans Crafts & Things. I drew up some feather designs in Corel Draw. Rather than striving for absolute realism, I wanted to create more of a stylized design with some art-deco flavor to it, something that would stand out. I printed the design onto white model tissue using an inkjet printer. First, I cut the tissue down to 7.5 by 10 inches and taped it onto an 8.5 by 11 sheet of paper, allowing it to feed through the printer. Two separate panels are spliced together to make the wings, and a third sheet of tissue is used for the tail. The simplified design has even made it possible for students to build and compete with these models. In North Carolina, they have an ornithopter event in their Science Olympiad. Unlike the AMA ornithopter event, they have to use a simplified design, which makes it more feasible for students. They get bonus points for making it look more like a real bird!

Nathan Chronister