Patent ID: 7219855

Claim:
A flapping apparatus, comprising: a body; an elastically deformable wing portion associated with said body; a driving unit for driving said wing portion relative to said body; and a control unit controlling the manner of driving said wing portion by said driving unit, wherein (i) said control unit pivots said driving unit about a rotational axis such that during said pivoting of said drive unit a leading edge of said wing portion reciprocates in a forward and backward direction, and an angle of attack of said wing portion is reversed so as to generate rotational lift and wake capture, (ii) said leading edge has a greater rigidity than the remainder of said wing portion, (iii) said remainder of said wing portion can elastically deform when driven by said driving unit so as to generate a lift force to a degree that said flapping apparatus can hover, (iv) said angle of attack of said wing portion is smaller by virtue of said elastic deformation than an angle of attack of a similarly controlled rigid wing portion, and (v) said wing portion extends outwardly from said body in a wing span direction, and said leading edge includes a wave plate structure having at least one of ridge lines or valley lines extending along said wing span direction of said wing portion.