I saw the title and thought you meant flapping, like an ornithopter. There was an article in this month's ... AOPA Pilot (?) about someone who was using trained parrots to study the phenomenan (seriously). They had a picture of this parrot with what looked like a 1950s era spacesuit helmet on. Very strange loking but the bird didn't seem to mind. I think he's really looking to mimic the effect in an aircraft.