You've always watched with fascination as birds fly. Now you've discovered these machines that capture that same beautiful and magnificent method of flight. How about now building your own and watching your creation take flight? No need to worry about finding cheap airfare or remembering what to pack either! This is flight at its simplest and purest. It's only a matter of time before you'll need to feel the excitement of building your own ornithopter and watching it climb into the sky.

To improve your chances of success, it's best if you start with a proven design before beginning your own experiments. This page describes some of the different options, to help you get started.

Rubber-Band-Powered Ornithopters

The least expensive way to get started in this new hobby is with a simple, rubber-band-powered ornithopter. These little birds are "free flight", meaning without radio control. You can buy a ready-made toy that flies fairly well, or you can build your own ornithopter from a kit. The light balsa wood construction of these models gives them much better performance.

You might be tempted to try the free plans on this web site. I must caution you, however. The plans are recommended only if you have a lot of experience building rubber-powered airplanes.Your chances of success are much better if you start with a kit. The special parts in the kit, and critical steps already done for you, make it much easier to build. Also, building a model from "free" plans will end up costing you more money by the time you get all the materials together.

The Phoenix, shown here, is a typical rubber-powered ornithopter that you can build from a kit. I developed these kits to make it easier for people to get started in the hobby of building ornithopters. You can find these in the online store.

Radio-Controlled Ornithopters

Radio-controlled (RC) ornithopters are far more complex than the rubber-band-powered variety. However, you can buy an RC ornithopter already assembled. Because of this, RC ornithopters are also viable as a first step into the world of flapping flight.

RC ornithopters fall into two categories: the ready-made toys, and the more complex, hobby-grade ornithopters. Toy RC ornithopters cost about $50. They come with everything you need, and they don't require any assembly. Typically, the RC transmitter has a built-in charger for charging the onboard battery.

Hobby-grade RC ornithopters offer larger size and more features. They use the same RC components found in RC planes. This means you can select your own radio receiver, servos, and batteries, to customize your bird. Often these ornithopters come fully assembled except for the installation of the radio components. Expect to pay at least $200 for a hobby-grade RC ornithopter and all the required accessories. If you already have a good collection of RC equipment, you can get started for less money.

Most RC ornithopters are powered by an electric motor. This gives them plenty of power, and it makes them much quieter and more convenient than the early internal-combustion-powered ornithopters. Presently, most RC ornithopters use lithium-polymer rechargeable batteries. These batteries have a higher power-to-weight ratio than older battery types -- but they can store only 1/75 as much energy as the fat that birds use to power their flight muscles!

Flying an RC ornithopter is fairly easy. The controls are just like an RC plane. A throttle stick controls the flapping rate. Flapping the wings faster makes the ornithopter climb higher. Decreased throttle causes the ornithopter to come down. Most RC ornithopters have a birdlike, fan-shaped tail, for steering. The tail tilts left and right to make turns. In the more complex, three-channel models, the tail may also move up and down, like the elevator of an RC plane.

As with any RC aircraft, it takes a certain amount of practice. You have to learn not to oversteer, and you must teach yourself how to respond when the model is coming toward you. Beginning pilots have a tendency to steer the wrong way when the ornithopter is facing them. This makes the ornithopter turn too sharply, and then it crashes. If you imagine yourself facing in the same direction as the ornithopter, it will be easier to make the correct control inputs and keep your bird in the air!

If you have any trouble getting your ornithopter to fly correctly, it can probably be fixed with a simple adjustment. With the exception of some cheap imitations on the market, these are proven designs that definitely will fly when set up correctly. Each ornithopter comes with instructions on how to achieve the correct flight performance.

Once you've gotten started with a radio-controlled or free-flight ornithopter, you can begin some simple experiments to help you learn more about how these machines operate.