THE ORNITHOPTER BOAT
Leonardo may not have been specifically thinking of boats when he was designing his ornithopters. Most of these designs also look like birds with the top half of the body removed to make room for the pilot. But in the end, the construction and shape are very little different from the small boats he would have known, so it is easiest to think of them that way. This one envisions the pilot pumping a big lever up and down to make the wings flap, something no one would actually have the strength to do. The shape of the wing comes straight from one of Leonardo’s sketches.
1 Fold all of the tabs on Fuselage (1). Bend but don’t crease it along the centerline. Carefully glue together the front and back of the Fuselage as shown.
2 Carefully push the two seams closed with your fingers and fasten them with a bit of glue on the inside.
3 Fold Nose Reinforcement (2), and glue it inside the nose so that the front points meet at the pointed tip of the Fuselage.
4 Fold the Gunwale Part (3) at the center. Fold the other tabs too. Carefully center it on the outside front tip of the Fuse-lage, and glue the left half on, flush with the edge of the boat.
5 Glue on the remaining half of the Gunwale in the same way.
6 Here’s how it will look from the bottom.
7 Use a round toothpick to roll Ballast Part (4). Fasten the end with a tiny bit of glue. Then attach Ballast Part (5) and roll and glue it the same way, followed by Ballast Part (6). Remove the toothpick.
8 Glue the Ballast Roll inside the fuse-lage, flush with the front tip.
9 Fold the glue tabs on Rudder Parts (7) and (8), and glue them together so the creases line up.
10 Glue the Rudder to the rear of the Fuselage. Make sure it is straight!
11 Mountain fold the Stabilizer (9) slightly, and glue it to the tabs at the back of the Fuselage.
12 Carefully bend the Wing Spar Parts (10) – (12), and glue them together as shown. The hole is slightly staggered, so use the edges and not the hole to align the parts.
Front view
13 Glue Wing Parts (13) and (14) to the bottom of the Spar as shown. Use the forward-curved portion of the Spar to align the Wings.
14 Glue the spars and Wings to the tabs on the Fuselage as shown. The front and rear corner of each Wing root should be pushed down below the Fuselage. Step 15 shows how it will look.
15 Glue Reinforcement Parts (15) and (16) to the bottoms of the Wings.
16 Fold and glue Lever Part (17).
17 Slip the Lever Part through the hole in the Spar, and glue it to the inside bottom of the Fuselage as shown.
18 Fold and glue the Hook (18).
19 Glue the Hook to the bottom of the nose as shown. The back of the Hook should meet the corner in the nose seam. All done!