What is an ornithopter?

Ornithoper

   Leonardo da Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519) was not only the greatest mathematician of the 15th century, but also a noted painter, architect, sculptor, engineer and musician. After studying the flight of birds and the movement of the air, he reasoned that birds flew because they flapped their wings and that it was pos­sible for man to do the same. Da Vinci designed the ornithopter, a flapping-wing flying machine. The wings were to be moved by a man's arms and legs.
   Ornithopters were tried by many men. Robert Hooke experimented with this means of flight in England about 1650. He claimed he succeeded in fly­ing, but he also wrote of his great diffi-culties to remain in the air. He is the first man who recognized that feathers were not needed for flight
Many men tried and f ailed to fly with the ornithopter. It was not until 1890 that Octave Chanute discovered why this method would never succeed — man could not develop sufficient power with only his arms and legs.