[Happy Monkey]

Copying birds directly is problematic because fixed-wing with engines is much more efficient in most ways and cases, and bird wings are designed for maneuvering using wing position. And even if flapping were better, we don't have something equivalent to muscles in strength and weight at the scale of an airplane.

But self-flying is probably a much easier problem than self-driving, as you don't have to differentiate detected objects into obstacles and "just part of the road", routing is much easier, landing sites are well-defined, deconfliction of routes is well-defined and has more options, and the sheer variety and number of potential obstacles is much less.

But yes, any plans that rely on doing it at a profit in the short term are very probably doomed.