Cover art
Jensen, Jan Lars. "The Secret History of the Ornithopter". In The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, June 1999.

Jensen, Jan Lars. "The Secret History of the Ornithopter"
Divergence: 1906 CE
What if: An English inventor was hired by the Japanese to continue development of the ornithopter, while the rest of the world began production of fixed-wing aircraft.
Summary: Three decades later, even as Japan employs the ornithopter in the conquest of Manchuria, the voice of an Englishman prevents the Pacific from becoming a major World War II battleground.
Published: In The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, June 1999; and One Lamp: The Best Alternate History Stories from F&SF (ed. Gordon Van Gelder), q.v.
Original in: English.
Translation: French as "L'histoire secrègte de l'ornithoptère", in Phénix #58 (March 2003) (2846020078).
Translation: Japanese as "title unknown" in Hayakawa SF date unknown.
Awards: Nominee: 2000 Hugo for best novelette. Finalist: 1999 Sidewise Award for best short-form alternate history.