Abstract: The research of micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) is a new field of low-Reynolds-number flow, which attracts much attention in the advanced aeronautical area. Micro air vehicles propelled by flapping wings are gaining interest for certain applications because flapping can provide more agility and manoeuvrability at low speeds. Flapping wings must deform in certain shapes to produce maximum lift and thrust. In the paper, we discuss an approach we used to design flapping wing Micro Air Vehicles (MAV), which replicating the flying patterns of birds. The development of MAV is complicated and it involves light weight design, power transmission design, flight controls, low Reynolds number flight, energy supply etc. The main objective of this work is to build an ornithopter with very less wing loading which can be used for surveillance purposes. The weight factor plays an important role and wing loading needs to be as low as possible. An experimental approach adopting trials and error methods was used to fabrication. Finally four wing MAV is designed for a wingspan of 28cm, total length of 175cm, weight of 14g and it involved a tail rotor for controlling the yawing movements. The prototype, then manufactured, assembled, performed several tests and achieved commendable flight.

Keywords: Flapping wing Micro Air Vehicle (MAV), tail rotor, Ornithopter, wing loading etc.