Starting flapping in that orientation may give very good control over forward/backward forces until you're ready to lift off. Once they lift off, the blades are too fast to observe, so they may well apply an additional rotation. Mechanically, they're clearly capable of such movement.
The forward wings produce forward-high to rear-low airflow, while the rear wing produces a rear-high to forward-low flow. Those join in the middle to a top-down flow.
Assuming that they're capable of changing the wing angle of attack, they seem to be doing the same motions that dragonfly wings make during flight, including take-off. Here is a slow motion video of one taking off (note the vertical motion of the wings): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOc8WTzMljw
Their flight mechanism is amazingly sophisticated (and efficient, cf the experiment showing that bees can fly at height above Mount Everest and below sea level, which is nuts) but it seems it has nothing to do with some "vibrational field".
If someone here knows more about this, definitely share!
It’s IMO more interesting to look for reasons that something could be consistent than try and point out issues like this.
Still suits could have some ‘sci-fi’ scale thermal battery assuming Arrakis gets cold at night. You could get warm enough during exercise the body starts to sweat while the suit generally feels cool in the sun and sufficently warm at night.
The sequence shown is clearly intended precisely to highlight the reality of the ornithopters, being a variant of those sequences in war movies that just show cool shots of real things being prepared for a mission.
Since the movie chooses to depict these sci-fi elements with that type of images of, I think it is fair to scrutiny them for realism.
A friend of a friend who is an ornithopter mechanic says it has something to do with unobtanium. TBH, I thought it was boring, so I quit listening, and this spicy bird was telling us about her desert religion thing.
I suspend my disbelief by thinking that it's quite possible they made different scientific discoveries than we did. Either different order of discovery, different constraints or things we still haven't figured out. That allows for engineering that looks different to what we are used to but if we knew every detail of how they worked it would make sense.
Somewhat related, the sound design team (who won an Oscar for their work) used cats purring, beetles fluttering, and the canvas strap of a tent in a 100mph wind for the sound of the ornithopters (at 2m40s)
Also, for the desert mouse (muad'dib) they used a Swedish baby red squirrel (named Baby Pear); interview with the person who originally recorded the squirrel (Dani Connor):
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[ 4.1 ms ] story [ 71.3 ms ] threadI found a Nature article: https://www.nature.com/articles/521S64a
Their flight mechanism is amazingly sophisticated (and efficient, cf the experiment showing that bees can fly at height above Mount Everest and below sea level, which is nuts) but it seems it has nothing to do with some "vibrational field".
If someone here knows more about this, definitely share!
Still suits honestly have the more glaring issue, and that's one that's apparent not just on film, but in the original text as well.
Anyway, it's not science fiction; it's space fantasy. Let it be.
Still suits could have some ‘sci-fi’ scale thermal battery assuming Arrakis gets cold at night. You could get warm enough during exercise the body starts to sweat while the suit generally feels cool in the sun and sufficently warm at night.
Since the movie chooses to depict these sci-fi elements with that type of images of, I think it is fair to scrutiny them for realism.
BBC has plenty of documentaries if fiction upsets you.
Pedants angsting over the reality of fiction does spoil the fiction so best to ignore such peoples laments about how things are unrealistic.
I was a bit drunk on spiced rum.
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT4nVWs7434
Somewhat related, the sound design team (who won an Oscar for their work) used cats purring, beetles fluttering, and the canvas strap of a tent in a 100mph wind for the sound of the ornithopters (at 2m40s)
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v2pbKWIV_g
Also, for the desert mouse (muad'dib) they used a Swedish baby red squirrel (named Baby Pear); interview with the person who originally recorded the squirrel (Dani Connor):
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtfzjehDg74