Next spring, for the first time
in more than 65 million years,
the flapping shadow of a giant
prehistoric flying reptile will be
cast on the ground. No, scientists have not cloned the genes
of the pterosaur
Quetzalcoatlus northropi. Instead, the
Smithsonian’s Air and Space
Museum in Washington, D.C.,
has secured funding to build a
full-scale, radio-controlled flying replica of the largest animal
ever to fly.
According to the plans, the
replica, with about a 36-foot
wingspan, will fly realistically, propelling itself by
wing flapping. It will be built
by AeroVironment, Inc., of
Monrovia, Calif., an innova-tive-aircraft design company.
AeroVironment is directed by
Paul MacCready, who has developed such human-powered aircraft as the Gossamer Condor
and the Gossamer Albatross,
which flew across the English
Channel, and the solar-pow-ered Gossamer Penguin and
Solar Challenger (SN: 6/14/80,
p. 373). The major funding for
the $400,000 pterosaur project
will come from Johnson Wax of
Racine, Wis. The museum plans
to fly the replica in Washington, beginning in spring 1986,
to call attention to a new film
about flight. The museum says
it “hopes the project will make
a significant contribution to
the fields of aerodynamics and
paleontology.”
A Quetzalcoatlus model soars above its builder Paul MacCready (left) and Tray MacCready in 1999 at the Museum of Flying in Santa Monica, Calif.
UPDATE
Flight lessons from extinct flapper
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