After mastering 9-14 minutes of circuit flying, after some trim mods to my Slow Parrot, and having learned the reflexes for correct remedial actions, to allow increased rates of climb and gliding into wind.(“See the Bird”,”Be the Bird”). I am now thinking of “What would this airframe fly like with real wings”

I’m going to contact local bird sanctuaries, to see If they have or will they allow me to take any recently deceased (“Norwegian Blue”) birds carcases, of birds which may have an approximate wingspan to the Slow Parrot.

This Frankenstein endeavour is to see if a Bio-Tech Hybrid has flight performance gains.

I will keep you all posted.

I was thinking of “Canada Goose” wings to start with, anybody got any better suggestions.

What a great idea, I think you should hook electrodes into the muscles and pulse the flapping motions!.. lol
I hope it works out for you, I will be watching this thread.
Maybe you could make molds of the wings and use 2 part expanding foam to make countless others.
Good luck

Maybe it's not too late. Get help!

lol Cyborg Bird, this is too much!

Hello Duncan. The laws may be different in your country, but here in the US it is illegal to possess parts of birds, except for certain species (a few nuisance species or those obtained with a hunting license). The laws to protect birds are intended to prevent their being shot for the marketing of their feathers, which was a serious problem in the past. Unfortunately, these laws could make it difficult for you to obtain bird wings even though you are trying to obtain them from birds that already died.

Once you get ahold of the wings, you may find there is a big difference between a dead wing and a live one. The tendons that would normally control the wing folding action will not be working, of course. The wing will be stiff. Also, the cartilage that holds the joints together may have weakened. With all this you may have to build your own skeletal structure to attach the feathers to! But it's a very interesting project that could pay off in terms of both realism and performance. If you find a way to adjust the amount of torsional flexibility of the wing that will allow you to tune the wing for best performance.

You know, they do have places for people like you. . .

You could replace the joints with ball and socket joints of plastic or somthing else light weight, and use muslel wire for the pull.

In a historic sense, designers often benefit from having had a closer look to nature.
So nothing wrong with that.

With birds wings, a lot of observations and measurements were made and documented alreday many years ago. A German enthusiast, Johannes Huser from Aachen, put together some interesting bionic facts, pictures and measurements on his website http://www.geier-segelflug.de/bionik.htm
Have a closer look here, also at his other pages, which includes links to further literature.

I like it - I hope you find it interesting, too.

For all who don't feel right now like practicing their German, find below an online translation:
http://translate.google.com/translat....de/bionik.htm

A concept not found yet on ornithopters (although easily installable): anti-reverse flow traps to allow for a wider angle of attack range. (Picture courtesy from above site)

As you can see in Zettl's photograph, birds have camber in their wings. The center is higher than the leading and trailing edge. This adds to the lift, and improves the performance ... especially at low speeds like we generally have with our ornithopters. Surely an airfoil with camber would improve the flight characteristics of an ornithopter - provided the extra weight was not excessive.

I hadn't ever thought of feathers as "anti-reverse flow traps" but it really might explain why they can fly so slowly when they land. That ought to be easy to add to a dacron wing with strips of fabric from wing root to tip?