Dune ornithopters flap their blades in the wrong plane for vertical takeoff

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.

Arguing with the physics of Dune is like taking issue with the way time travel works in Back to the Future.

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.

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

I got curious when I read this comment https://twitter.com/BrunoPresents/status/1779373530951360622 and did some research.

I 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!

Just wave your hands and say “Holtzman” effect, to get back to the story. This bothers you but the shields don’t?

The scene in the movie where they're first shown:

* 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

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.

I’m pretty sure Dune is fiction.

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.

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.

As if this was the only problem with them, such machines are incapable of flight in general.