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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."

2 of 143 comments (clear)

  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. Insectothopter? by rocketman768 · · Score: 4, Interesting

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