A staple of science fiction is the ornithopter, an aircraft with moving wings. Although these have not proved to be very practical in the general sense, a recent paper talks about imitating natural feathers that change shape To improve maneuverability in drones and other aircraft. In particular, the paper talks about how the flight performance of many birds and bats far exceeds that of conventional aircraft.
The technical term for being more efficient than a conventional aircraft is, unsurprisingly, called superconductivity. aircrafts pugachev cobra This type of operation is required for the maneuver (see the video below, or the latest Top Gun movie), and with modern aircraft, this means using thrust-vector technology along with unstable airframes and sophisticated computer controls. This is not how birds or bats work, and the paper uses modern flight simulation techniques to show that biomimicry and thrust vector techniques do not have to be mutually exclusive.
So how do you apply lessons from birds, bats, and even flying squirrels to drones? The answer appears to be allowing the wings to dynamically change shape or, as the paper calls it, form.
One key maneuver covered in the paper is particularly interesting for military drones: RANPAS or rapid-nose-pointing-and-shooting. Presumably, you're not worried about this for your next drone project, but being able to maneuver more like a bird would be great.
It's not that we haven't seen the real ornithopters around here. some of them are practically prehistoric,
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