The aircraft built combined both fixed and flapping wings, but in this case the power came only from the flappers while the larger wings acted as mere stabilizers. Only the powered flappers enabled lift for the fixed surfaces. The craft weighed 60 kg and the larger wingspan was 12.6 meters. The human-powered flappers were each 3.2 meters long. Unlike the traditional flapping up-and-down movement favored by other ornithopter pioneers Schmid opted for a rotary movement, imitating a bird’s upstroke wingspan reduction movements. Schmid’s ornithopter flew on June 26, 1942 outside of Munich to a distance of 900 meters. After being towed aloft, it maintained a 20 meter height for the entire distance and landed. Schmid considered the flight a success but the nature of the human muscle-power flappers were called into question and Schmid knew that there were limitations to human strength. Therefore, he installed a 3 hp Sachs motorcycle engine into the ornithopter to power the flappers and added wheels for take-off and landing. This allowed the aircraft to take off unassisted and the very first test flight which lasted 15 minutes averaged 60 km/h. Fuel consumption was low at 1.5 liters per 100 km. Schmid found that satisfactory, but then upped the ornithopter’s power by installing a 6 hp engine which increased speed to 80 km/h. After these historic accomplishments, Schmid's work was interrupted by the war situation. While Schmid continued to make a few scout tests over Munich with the craft which he named “Wolke” (Cloud), the Luftwaffe took some initial interest in the odd machine with provisional designation SC-28. It was thought that perhaps the machine might be modified into a near silent recon plane but the limitations of the flapping wings proved otherwise and the project was cancelled. The Luftwaffe already had plenty of recon aircraft of conventional operation.

Photos of the bird: http://discaircraft.greyfalcon.us/picturesm/orn2.jpg http://discaircraft.greyfalcon.us/picturesm/orn3.jpg