Falcon Ornithopter YouTube Video

[dcgeorge64L4M]

 

Dear Fusion 360 tech support team,

I just wanted to let you all know that my YouTube video, called Project Falcon, is now online. The video features an ornithopter that I built using Fusion 360. I wanted to thank all those on the team that offered encouragement during this year-long endeavor and helped me solve the many technical problems I encountered.

To show my gratitude, I put the Fusion logo on both sides of the machine as promised but in the video they turned out to be too small to read easily. I apologize for this and, to compensate, I put a more significant plug near the beginning of the video itself.

I trust this is acceptable to all concerned.

The link to the video is: https://youtu.be/VWFwl7a-0vg

Thanks again, to Autodesk Inc. generally and especially to the Fusion 360 team. It is, simply put, a great program and I will be forever grateful to have had access to it.

Douglas George

[brianrepp]

Douglas - I've been wondering how you were progressing along with this, congrats!  Really appreciate the nod to the community here and the Fusion 360 team.  What's next for the project?

[dcgeorge64L4M]

Hi Brian,

What's next? That's a good question. I've been so totally obsessed with and consumed by this project for the last year and a half that it's almost beyond strange to have a life back again. So, basically I'm taking a breather. When I started building the model in F360, I fantasized about getting a fully articulated model and possibly a video of it flying but I didn't expect it to actually work out that way.

The long range plan was (and still is) to generate enough interest in the concept that someone or some organization with deep pockets and lots of young, nimble brains would take up the cause and set out to build one. I've always joked that NASA could build it. Years ago, a fellow from Georgia named Ted Ciamillo (google him) was about to start building it but the great depression of '08 torpedoed the project.

The drawing is not complete by any stretch of the imagination. The cable system that allows the wings to fold up as they do in the video isn't shown nor are the details that enable the wrists to fall limp during the flip-back portion of the stroke cycle. Truth be told, every single part of the machine will require thorough engineering refinements and cutting edge technology to reach the strength and weight requirements for a successful implementation.

I'm not an engineer. My education was in physics so I approached the design and the evaluation study from that point of view.

The evaluation study and other the details will soon be available on the projectfalcon.us website that my friend Carl Lumma is putting together (Carl is the one who told me about Fusion 360 all those many months ago). A somewhat dated version of it all is still on my personal website: dcgeorge.com.

Anyway, this is probably way more than you wanted to hear about "what's next" so we'll leave it at that for now.

Best regards,

Douglas

[jgeating]

Awesome work you've done here! I'm really impressed. 

Have you considered moving to more of an open source platform to let the community at large contribute to this development? Per se, using google drive and/or forums so anyone can post analyses, design concepts, etc.? I have a variety of thoughts and questions in general, as well as recommendations and experience pertaining to the hydraulic system and mechanisms design. I have a mechanical engineering background.