The Real Life Dune Ornithopter... it was French!

Least crazy french design be like:

The Baguette must Flow

I can imagine an ornithopter working as a really tiny insect sized drone designed to infiltrate buildings. I cannot imagine it working as a normal sized drone or even aircraft due to air density, mechanical stress and gravity.

So it sounds like the orthinopter is a kind of ornithopter.

I don't know about you, but when I'm designing a machine I try to include as many moving parts as possible.

Alternate reality where young Prince Napoleon and his mother escape to the Algerian desert in one of these, to lead the locals in a fight against his ancient enemy, House Hohenzollern.

2:00 im pretty sure a normal plane with a propeller would use far less energy than trying to flap 4 big wings at hi speed

The way he says ornithopter differently each time 😂

the shape of the broken wings at 5:32 is.... ironic

5:23 those wings were trying to warn the french about the Germans 😂

The baguette thopter was not what I expected

the problem with these type of aircraft is a dragonfly doesn't scale nicely. We as human's weren't destined to fly, and lifting our weight into the sky takes a lot of effort. Thats why propelling hundreds of us im metal tubes needs a pair or two of big engines to do so. The mechanics of an ornothopter just doesn't scale. theres lots of moving parts that can easily break down either from metal fatigue or simple failures such as a busted linkage etc. Plus it would be a horrificly uncomfortable ride; with all that vibration being mechanically linked to the fuselage.

5:17 An experimental French ornithopter turning itself into a 'windmill' before the German invasion was definitely an omen.

Orthinopter sounds like an aircraft powered by bone 🦴

Ornithopters are such a cool concept

Flapping or oscillating Wings on aircraft are like legs on land vehicles. We know how they ought to work, but we do not know how to make them survive working or power them to operate them for a useful amount of time.

You’d be surprised by how many crazy French designs made it into today’s day to day life, to the point we don’t even think about it. From the jet engine, designed early last century when airplanes where made out of wood and fabric and that today powers airliners and fighter jets, to the statoreactor (ramjet), the pulsoreactor that powered the V1s, the quadrocopter that today everybody flies under the form of drones, the automobile, etc…

Turned German for a moment there

I always find the way you said "Orthinopter" rather than "Ornithopter" is hilarious :D

The shockwaves of the wing tips continually breaking the sound barrier would cause such vibration that any known material would never withstand this.