It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's...Both? Among the world's
wonders, Leonardo da Vinci marveled at how birds fly, mulling
over possible mechanics in what became his Codex on the Flight
of Birds. He hit upon some relevant physical properties such as
inertia and fluidity, going “straight to the heart of how birds
fly, asking a series of very specific questions,” Richard Prum,
an ornithologist at Yale University, told Audubon in "Decoding
da Vinci." “It’s fantastic, almost eerie, how much progress he
made.” Imagine his reaction if da Vinci saw SmartBird (featured
in the video above), a manmade airplane based on the look and
movement of a herring gull. Created by a team led by Markus
Fischer, of the German technology company Festo, the agile avi-
plane flaps its 6.5-foot wings just like a bird. Weighing in at
less than a pound, it’s ultralight, which contributes to its
energy efficiency through air: Its overall energy consumption at
takeoff is about 25 Watts, and 60-80 Watts (that’s like an
incandescent light bulb)