An ornithopter having segmented, flapping wings and capable of bird-like flight. A main drive system provides flapping motion to the wings. Servo systems are provided for independently moving each wing forward and backward along a major axis of the aircraft fuselage, thereby providing a balance subsystem. A single servomechanism controls upward and downward direction of the wings thereby providing a center angle control subsystem. Two additional servo systems are provided to control a tail assembly that provides steering and other ancillary control functions. Each subsystem is controlled by a dedicated, onboard microcontroller. One embodiment of the aircraft is remotely controlled by a wireless data communication link. The aircraft may be constructed to resemble a natural bird, in both static appearance and flight characteristics. The aircraft may be scaled from model size to a full-size, passenger carrying aircraft.