What's an effective use of the ornithopter?

The best use I've found for this unit is simply to let them die by exposing them to enemy turret fire. As they are shot at, the enemy turrets will become exposed. You noticed that they are very fragile and will die to a single hit, and since the enemy bases usually start out with tons of turrets they will quickly die, but due to their speed its a great way of scouting.

The only other effective way of using them I've found is to have multiple high tech bays complete multiple ornithopters simultaneously, this way they can have a shot at at least destroying one of their high value targets (typically the enemy's repair bay), and also expose a good portion of their base.