The military’s UAV fleet will soon be getting a small addition — DARPA’s hummingbird-shaped covert surveillance drone.
Dubbed the Nano Hummingbird, this Nano Air Vehicle (NAV) is built by AeroVironment. It’s designed for urban surveillance missions and has just passed DARPA’s Phase II technical milestones.
It mimics more than just a hummingbird’s looks, mind you. By copying the bird’s aerodynamics and wing movements, the NAV is able to hover for eight minutes while easily moving in and out of buildings. The tiny, 10-gram flier is also able to operate in windy conditions — withstanding up to 5MPH gusts. The drone is controlled via a video stream from its deployment aircraft.
So the next time you see a hummingbird with four prongs instead of tail feathers, be sure to smile for the camera. [UnCrate via Ubergizmo]
gg
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 8:59 AMbecause if you saw a hummingbird in flying down the city streets of any city in the world, you wouldn’t be suspicious… seriously? a hummingbird? i understand why it would fit the specs for hovering etc, but they might as well just make it an elephant and be done with it.
Osiris Fox
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 4:20 PMYes, because military camo is also amazing at making soldiers disappear.
Just This Guy ...
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 5:19 PMLike you’d pick an unexpected hummingbird from all the other birds that flap and flutter everywhere. Or do you always look to see what sort of bird that is that’s gone wizzing by.
Besides, what are you doing that you need to be so worried about them anyway?
Also… An elephant can’t fly nearly as well or in very confined spaces at all.