Christchurch and District Model Flying Club
 

Humingbird flight

(via Brian Wiseman, and with apologies to whichever magazine it is ripped from—New Scientist?)

US firm AeroVironment has pub1ic1y demonstrated a hummingbird-1ike unmanned aircraft that can achieve preision hovering and fly in any direction using only its flapping wings for propulsion and control.

Deve1oped for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Nano Air Vehicle (NAV)programme, the Nano Hummingbird weighs only 19g including batteries, motors, communicatins systems and a video camera payload and has a wingspan of l8cm. That makes it smaller than the largest known hummingbird in nature, though larger than the average.

The final concept demonstrator can climb and descend vertically, fly sideways, forwards and backwards, and rotate in either direction under remote control and carrying a video camera payload. During the demonstration at the AAAS conference in Washington, it flew in and out of a building through a normal-size doorway. The aircraft can be fitted with a removable body fairing, wbich is shaped to have the appearance of a hummingbird.

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