The Nineteenth Century: – The Zenith of the Ornithopter

This chapter discusses the development of the ornithopter in the 19th century. The 19th century, as far as flight in general, and man-powered flight in particular, was concerned, commenced badly. In 1801, a French General, Resnier de Gone tested an ornithopter that he had begun designing 13 years previously, but succeeded only in making a dive into the river Charente. In 1854, Bryant again demonstrated his faith in the ornithopter by suggesting that manual depression of the wings by the pilot would best be aided by raising them with elastic. In 1864, Struve and Telescheff suggested a man-powered ornithopter with five pairs of wings, in the hope that this would overcome the problem of stability. However, the enthusiasts for man-powered flight became overshadowed by the inevitable trend toward adoption of the internal combustion engine, and this was aided by the model makers, who, even using rubber powered ornithopters, could make a successful flying machine. With the advent of fixed wing aircraft powered by the internal combustion engine, an incentive to rethink the philosophy of man-powered flight was presented, although this did not really emerge in the form of hardware until the early 1930s.