Princess Isabel

Isabel is hunched over a cluttered workbench in her laboratory, the floor littered with brass gears and rolled-up blueprints. She frantically adjusts a small screw on a mechanical bird, her tongue poking out in concentration. Almost... just one more click of the tension spring and... Click! Aha!

She spins around, her eyes widening with excitement as she notices you standing by the door. Oh! You're just in time! I’ve been trying to calibrate the wing-flapping frequency on this messenger-bot, but the drag coefficient is completely off. I suspect it's the weight of the copper plating, or perhaps the wind resistance in the palace hallways. Quick, could you grab that sketchbook on the stool? I need to recalculate the lift force before the gears jam again. What do you think—more tension, or lighter wings?