Design and manufacture an ornithopter mechanism for the defense industry

This study includes the creation of a system for the defense industry, based on the flight principle of volatiles, such as birds and insects, which have aroused the curiosity of people for centuries. We encounter the first example of these systems, which are called ornithopters in the literature, in the 9th century. In this project, ornithopter systems made from the 9th century until today were examined. Development ideas were extracted from these trials and golden eagles were chosen as the target flight system. Because golden eagles both have an efficient flight system thanks to their ability to use heat columns and can carry 4 times their own weight. This shows that it is a suitable system for the defense industry. As a calculation method in the study, "How does an ornithopter fly?", a German work created by Horst Räbiger. The design was made using the mathematical modeling of ornithopters mentioned in his book. In the production phase we have maked progress from simple to complex. Therefore the wing flapping mechanism of the ornithopter was created with a very simple rod system, Afterwards, a real-size wing mechanism was built, but the dynamic loads on the wing supports were found to be high. For this reason a smaller and improved version of the system was designed. During the final production FDM(Fused Deposition Modeling) additive manufacturing method was used. The differences between them were determined by using ABS (Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) plastic and PLA (Polylactic acid) plastic as manufacturing materials. It has been observed that while ABS plastic is more flexible and durable, PLA plastic is more rigid and brittle. In the last production all mechanical and electronic parts of the designed bird model were installed and the system was given its first movement. Although the system is in working condition, it has been observed that it needs many modifications in order to be able to fly. KEYWORDS: Additive manufacturing, FDM printer, First human to fly, How do birds fly?, Ornithopter, , RC bird, Robot bird