perfidy

B,
Bring it home for me. Explain the advantage and/or utility of such a flight system.

Because I think it looks gay.

Can we pass on the sandworms? They are almost as creepy as house centipedes ... almost ...

I'll take the sandworms if we can not have Sting.

ornithopter- assuming you can get reliable flight have some significant advantages. On current planes, the wings are basically passive static foils and the engines provide external thrust.

An ornithopter, the wings act both as lift and propulsion. A) This is a much more effient. (Think how much energy it takes a sea gull to cross an ocean) B) In theory flight should be virtually silent. (say use a fuel cell power source) C) VSTOL, STOL capability is inherit.

Now speedwise - An ornithopter will never be jet fast, but they should be helocopter fast. A good ornithopter if ever made, will render the helocopter obsolete.

At the current rate, I would expect a good ornithopter in about 100 years, unless Bill Gates decides otherwise.

That said, a small ornithopter UAV would be ideal. Which of course, is under development.

I liked Sting in that movie. Especially the part where he gets a knife jammed in him...

"I hope the Harkonnen love their children, too..."

MO,
That was funny and I started to chuckle but then it made me think of Sting and I started to doze off.

And I don't need any help, as I'm at work...

James, there's no reason that a properly designed ornithopter couldn't achieve jet speeds. Or at least fast speeds. If the wings wer tucked back, like a diving bird of prey, or like a tomcat, a jet could provide thrust. It'd be like a harrier in that case.

I remember there was a concept for a helicopter with four fat rotor blades that would freeze, at which point it would become a four winged jet plane. (Lock x foils in attack position, of course.)

The ornithopters in Dune had jet engines for takeoff assist and long distance flight, you know.

Even short of fully flapping wings, if you could get a wing that could change its shape more subtly than the swing wings of the F-14, you'd have something there. Cupping the wings for greater lift at low speeds, etc. Of course, flaps and ailerons do that now, but that would be more efficient.

Murdoc, FYI, the Harkonnens don't love their children. Neither did the Russians in the cold war.

BH: Yeah, but we can sing about HOPING they do...I mean, what's the alternative? Arming and preparing to defend ourselves? If we're busy doing THAT, who's going buy the world a Coke?

Um, I must admit that I'm actually a more than a bit of a Sting fan. But, like Prince, it's too entertaining to make fun of him to stop...

Speaking of ridiculing Prince, that reminded me of an old Letterman top ten:

Top Ten Michael Jackson Marriage Tips

10. Mickey Mouse ears make a great birth control device

9. Be considerate -- try not to hog the monkey

8. Keep the moonwalking crap to a minimum

7. Apologize after saying something like "I wished I'd married the remains of the elephant man instead of you!"

6. Whenever wife complains about how freakin' weird you are, show her a picture of Prince

5. Make it clear that as far as she is concerned, your pants are neverland

4. Pretend not to notice when she flirts with other androgynous freaks

3. Maintain joint account with Revlon

2. Keep having surgery until you and your wife are identical twins

1. Two words: Beat it!

There are some interesting morphable wing programs out there. The goal is to create partially morphic wings. While a far cry from an ornathopter, they can significantly inprove flight performance. They might even make the F-18 into a fighter.

That said, I am a bit of purist. No jet power for my ornathopter.