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Ultra-Light Micro Air Vehicles

Posted by samzenpus on from the eye-in-the-sky dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "Dutch engineers have built the third generation of the DelFly autonomous air vehicle. The DelFly Micro made its first public flight earlier today in Delft. This micro air vehicle weighs only 3 grams and has a wingspan of 10 centimeters. This very small remote-controlled aircraft carries a 0.4 gram camera. The DelFly Micro, which looks like a dragonfly, can fly for 3 minutes at a maximum speed of 5 meters/second. It could be used for observation flights in difficult-to-reach or dangerous areas."

5 of 143 comments (clear)

  1. Paging Danny Dunn... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Danny Dunn to the white courtesy phone, please ...

    1. Re:Paging Danny Dunn... by QuantumHack · · Score: 5, Interesting

      That's exactly what I was thinking! When I was 12, and I read Raymond Abrashkin's "Danny Dunn: Invisible Boy", I was mesmerized. And this mini UAV is essentially the plot device in the book, right down to the dragonfly appearance. Pretty good prediction for a book from the mid '70s.

      --
      www.backwoodsengineer.com
  2. Why a dragonfly? by Blice · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I don't understand why they're trying to shape it after a dragonfly- There are more efficient ways of getting around the air than flapping wings. I mean, yeah, I get that it would be cool to have one that actually looked like a dragonfly for spying and such, but for getting into dangerous or hard to reach places it shouldn't be designed this way.

    I think a really good example is this guy's plane, he made it to be as light as possible and had to make his own motor for it. I think they should make one the size of this 'dragonfly' but with a propeller like the plane in the video.

  3. great for urban warfare by Werrismys · · Score: 3, Interesting

    take a peek at who's around thecorner.. or who's lieing prone on the ceiling... heck, add 2 grams of explosive and use it as a diversion.

    --
    'Once scientists, even the dim-witted social scientists, get muzzled, the Western Civilization is finished.' - oldhack
  4. Insectothopter? by rocketman768 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Insectothopter? CIA had these back in the 70s...very hard to control in winds over 5 knots though.