[huuu]

True. But because as today it's easier to implement doesn't mean we won't have aircraft with flapping wings in the future.

[jdmichal]

We probably won't, at least not at human-scale and not on Earth. Flapping wings don't scale; there's a reason you have to get to #12 of the heaviest birds list to get one that flies, at ~13% the maximum mass of the heaviest bird.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_birds#Table_of...

[DigitalJack]

I wonder where pterodactyls would fall on that scale.

[jdmichal]

Looks like Wikipedia has us covered:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pterosaur_size#Speculation_abo...

From the references, this is a pretty good read:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-pterosaurs-fir...