File:Design and Work. Vol. 2, no. 10. 10 February 1877 - Toy Flying Machine.jpg

Whilst the residing at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States, in about 1879–80, Bishop Milton Wright returned home from one of his travels and gave his sons, Wilbur, age 12–13, and Orville, age 8–9, a toy flying machine. The boys were fascinated by it and called the "bat". (Combs, Harry; Caiden, Martin. Kill Devil Hill: Discovering the Secret of the Wright Brothers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1979. p. 27) This toy is said to have set Orville and Wilbur on the road to solve the aerial navigation problem in later years.

The 10 February 1877 issue of the British home and workshop magazine, Design and Work (1876–1881), published an engraving and description of the French rubber band powered toy flying machine, the "mechanical bat", assumedly another Alphonse Pénaud or Émile Dandrieux design, measuring 8.5 in long x 8 in span (216 mm x 203 mm):

TOY FLYING MACHINE,
A very ingenious toy, of French invention, which is a really successful flying machine. It is termed the "mechanical bat;" and it imitates the erratic flight of that creature in a very curious and amusing manner. The construction is clearly shown in the engraving, though one of the wings has been removed for the purposes of space. A, B, and C are semicircular pieces of cork. Between A and B are secured two thin wooden rods, D, made of orange or some other light strong wood. From A extend arms, between which and the adjacent rods, D, are pasted tissue paper wings. In A is rigidly secured a hook. The similar in B turns freely therein, but is fastened in another piece of cork, C. Between the rods and from hook to hook is stretched a rubber band, E; and in the cork, C, are inserted two feathers, like the fans of a propeller. The apparatus is wound up by turning the cork, C, until a strong twist is thrown in the rubber, E. Then the machine is released, when it will fly for a considerable distance either vertically upward or horizontally, return, and circle about, until the revolution of the propeller ceases, when it sinks to the ground.

The principle of the device embodies both the plans which, it is now generally admitted, must underlie the construction of any successful flying machine—namely, the kite and the screw. The screw drives the machine ahead, and at the same time causes the resistance of the air to furnish the component of force vertically applied, which, acting on the wings, sustains the apparatus against the action of gravity. The toy is 8½ in. in length, and 8 in. in breadth from tip to tip of the wings.