seconds. It flew with an average speed of . Similar tow-launched flights were made in the past, but improved data collection verified that the ornithopter was capable of self-powered flight once aloft. Applications for unmanned ornithopters Practical applications capitalize on the resemblance to birds or insects. Colorado Parks and Wildlife has used these machines to help save the endangered Gunnison sage grouse. An artificial hawk under the control of an operator causes the grouse to remain on the ground so they can be captured for study. Because ornithopters can be made to resemble birds or insects, they could be used for military applications such as aerial reconnaissance without alerting the enemies that they are under surveillance. Several ornithopters have been flown with video cameras on board, some of which can hover and maneuver in small spaces. In 2011, AeroVironment, Inc. demonstrated a remotely piloted ornithopter resembling a large hummingbird for possible spy missions. Led by Paul B. MacCready (of Gossamer Albatross), AeroVironment, Inc. developed a half-scale radio-controlled model of the giant pterosaur, Quetzalcoatlus northropi, for the Smithsonian Institution in the mid-1980s. It was built to star in the IMAX movie On the Wing. The model had a wingspan and featured a complex computerized autopilot control system, just as the full-sized pterosaur relied on its neuromuscular system to make constant adjustments in flight. Researchers hope to eliminate the motors and gears of current designs by more closely imitating animal flight muscles. Georgia Tech Research Institute's Robert C. Michelson is developing a reciprocating chemical muscle for use in microscale flapping-wing aircraft. Michelson uses the term "entomopter" for this type of ornithopter. SRI International is developing polymer artificial muscles that may also be used for flapping-wing flight. In 2002, Krister Wolff and Peter Nordin of Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, built a flapping-wing robot that learned flight techniques. The balsa-wood design was driven by machine learning software technology known as a steady-state linear evolutionary algorithm. Inspired by natural evolution, the software "evolves" in response to feedback on how well it performs a given task. Although confined to a laboratory apparatus, their ornithopter evolved behavior for maximum sustained lift force and horizontal movement. Since 2002, Prof. Theo van Holten has been working on an ornithopter that is constructed like a helicopter. The device is called the "ornicopter" and was made by constructing the main rotor so that it would have no reaction torque.