What is an Ornithopter?

The small bird helicopter, with an empty weight of less than 700 kg and a maximum take-off weight of 1.6 tons, can be said to be the lightest military helicopter. Compared with military helicopters that are often called "tiger", "eagle" and other ferocious animals, McDonnell Douglas' MD-500 helicopter is really a "bird"

Bird helicopter

"Bird" is a single-engine light helicopter. The overall design can be traced back to the 369 prototype developed by Hughes Helicopters in the 1960s. The latter has continued to develop in the past half century, from the OH-6A that has been combated to the MD500 all over the world, and has become the ideal platform for the U.S. Army special operations forces to perform secret missions. The AH-6 series and MH- The 6 series is used for fire attack and assault transportation missions respectively. It is vividly described as a "bird" due to the rapid response of operations and the agility of flying actions.

On October 7, 2008, Boeing officially announced the AH-6 light attack / reconnaissance helicopter program at the annual meeting of the American Army Association.

On September 16, 2009, the AH-6i prototype successfully completed its first flight. ^[3]

Because of its low noise and low infrared imaging characteristics, the bird is favored by the US special forces. Currently, there are still 40-60 aircraft in service with the US Army's 160 special aviation brigade.

MH-6 bird helicopter