thinner wings have a limited angle of attack but provide optimum minimum-drag performance for a single lift coefficient. Although hummingbirds fly with fully extended wings, such flight is not feasible for an ornithopter. If an ornithopter wing were to fully extend and twist and flap in small movements it would cause a stall, and if it were to twist and flap in very large motions, it would act like a windmill causing an inefficient flying situation. A team of engineers and researchers called "Fullwing" has created an ornithopter that has an average lift of over 8 pounds, an average thrust of 0.88 pounds, and a propulsive efficiency of 54%. The wings were tested in a low-speed wind tunnel measuring the aerodynamic performance, showing that the higher the frequency of the wing beat, the higher the average thrust of the ornithopter. In fiction Ornithopters have been depicted in fiction several times, including Frank Herbert's Dune series, where they are the primary form of transportation in the desert setting. See also Cyclogyro Gyroplane Helicopter Human-powered aircraft Insectothopter Micro air vehicle Micromechanical Flying Insect Nano Hummingbird Rotary-wing aircraft References Further reading Chronister, Nathan. (1999). The Ornithnopter Design Manual. Published by The Ornithopter Zone. Mueller, Thomas J. (2001). "Fixed and flapping wing aerodynamics for micro air vehicle applications". Virginia: American Inst. of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Azuma, Akira (2006). "The Biokinetics of Flying and Swimming". Virginia: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics 2nd Edition. . DeLaurier, James D. "The Development and Testing of a Full-Scale Piloted Ornithopter." Canadian Aeronautics and Space Journal. 45. 2 (1999), 72–82. (accessed November 30, 2010). Warrick, Douglas, Bret Tobalske, Donald Powers, and Michael Dickinson. "The Aerodynamics of Hummingbird Flight." American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics 1–5. Web. 30 Nov 2010. Crouch, Tom D. Aircraft of the National Air and Space Museum. Fourth ed. Lilienthal Standard Glider. Smithsonian Institution, 1991. Bilstein, Roger E. Flight in America 1900–1983. First ed. Gliders and Airplanes. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984. (pages 8–9) Crouch, Tom D. Wings. A History of Aviation from Kites to the Space Age. First ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2003. (pages 44–53) Anderson, John D. A history of aerodynamics and its impact on flying machines. Cambridge: United Kingdom, 1997. External links , two-minute flight of an eight-foot radio-controlled ornithopter Aircraft configurations