Flapping NAV Performs Controlled Hovering Flight

Posted by timothy on Wednesday July 1, 2009 @05:58AM from the ornithopters-are-just-hovering-in-the-wings dept.

An anonymous reader writes "AeroVironment, Inc. was awarded a Phase II contract extension in April from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to design and build a flying prototype for the Nano Air Vehicle (NAV) program. As part of this program AV has accomplished a technical milestone never before achieved: the controlled hovering flight of an air vehicle system with two flapping wings (video) that carries its own energy source and uses only the flapping wings for propulsion and control. Two wings for propulsion and control, nothing else."

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Ornithopter by fiannaFailMan · 2009-07-01 06:10 · Score: 5, Informative

Shouldn't this sort of thing be called an Ornithopter?

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Drill baby drill - on Mars
Youtube by reg106 · 2009-07-01 06:14 · Score: 5, Informative

Here is an AeroVironment NAV video on YouTube. Not sure if it's the same one, but it was uploaded today...