Page 141 - The Origin of Birds and Flight

Harun Yahya (Adnan Oktar) 139

The race is on to be the first in history. It's been 500 years since
Leonardo da Vinci (designed an ornithopter), and it is time for this to be
conquered. 1
In order to discover aerodynamic secrets, Jones-Bowman makes use of
fossils of the pterosaur, bat-like reptiles whose membranous wing span
reached up to 10 meters (32.8 feet). According to the U.S. Defense
Department, however, beating wings present a number of aerodynamic
problems that make it difficult to replace fixed-wing planes.
As you have seen, it is even more difficult to combine both conditions—
wing beating and reduction in size. The fact that birds have small bodies
and can flap their wings with no difficulty should make people reflect on the
perfection in Allah’s creation.
People engaged in the field of biomimetics study tuna in order to unrav-
el the secrets of swimming, grasshoppers to unravel those of jumping, and
cockroaches and lobsters for rapid navigation in bumpy spaces. Wings in-
terest engineers studying nature with the aim of producing new ideas in the
field of machine design. Michael Dickinson, a biology professor of
University of California at Berkeley who also assists with government-
backed robot flight design, says this:
There is growing collaboration between biologists and engineers. If we
look at the architecture nature. . . maybe we can extract that out and
copy it. 2
Hundreds of years ago, this inspired Leonardo da Vinci to sketch the
first plans for an ornithopter. However, it would have been exceedingly dif-
ficult to turn these drawings into a working model. In studying the flight dis-
plays put on by a sparrow or a crow, scientists revealed the principles of
the science of aerodynamics.
In contrast to a plane, which moves in the air with the help of an engine,
a bird obtains its own lift and propulsion force by using its wings. In order
to do so, birds constantly change the angle at which their wings encoun-
ter air currents. This way, they immediately adapt to changing condi-
tions and continue flying with no problems. Airplanes are immedi-
ately affected by weather conditions, and since flying under such
conditions can be dangerous, flights have to be cancelled from
time to time.
One group of students led by James DeLaurier of
University of Toronto are carrying on the ornithopter goal by
using birds as models. Their design will be propelled forward in an ideal