Why is it so difficult for us to just replicate a bird instead of the kind of fixed wing aircraft we have?
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The main reason birds flap instead of using jets or propellers isn’t because flapping is more efficient (it’s not). It’s because body parts need to be connected to the circulatory system to stay alive, making it very hard for an animal to build an “axle”. An axle is necessary to make a wheel, propeller, or jet turbine. To build such a thing, an animal would have to extrude a living bit of itself into the shape of the spinny bit, then “pinch it off” and allow it to die in place there. (For example, grow a propeller-shaped bone, then disconnect it and let it become dead bone in a propeller shape). It’s hypothetically do-able, but very hard for evolution to “land on” such a solution. There are a few bacteria that can sort of do this – making a flagellum that spins to “whip around” and push the bacterium forward, but it’s never been seen on a larger scale, as far as I know.
As to why we don’t make flapping planes, well it’s not as efficient, and it’s super hard to control the complex mechanism (something an instinctual brain is better at than our computer software, but maybe the day will come when it’s do-able with some kind of machine learning.) About the only advantage it would confer would be maneuverability. Being able to fold a wing any which way would let you do all kinds of fancy stunts. But it would also be a *very uncomfortable ride*. Imagine bobbing up and down on a 3 hour flight.
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