Breaking News
They're Using This War To 'Replace The Dollar'
What Schools Don't Teach You About American Indians
Wait what?! Farmers in Missouri & elsewhere have been finding boxes of Ticks?
"The greatest crime against humanity in recorded history… 81% of the women in one section...
Top Tech News
China Introduces Pistol-Like Coil-Gun Based On Electromagnetic-Launch Systems
NEXT STOP: MARS IN JUST 30 DAYS?!
Poland's researchers discovered a bacteria strain that destroys pancreatic cancer.
Intel Partners with Tesla and SpaceX on Terafab
Anthropic Number One AI in Ranking and Revenue - Making $30 Billion Per Year
India's indigenous fast breeder reactor achieves critical stage: PM Modi
Mexico Speeds Up Biometric ID Rollout
Homemade solar drone smashes endurance record with 5+ hours aloft
This Home Flywheel Makes Storing Solar 90% Cheaper -- And It Works Forever!
Physicists captured a crystal made only of electrons, forming a honeycomb pattern without atoms...
US Air Force developing remote-controlled bird-like 'microdrones' with flapping wings
The US Air Force says it's developing microdrones that can flap their wings and change wingbeat mid-flight.
The organisation's elite research lab is working with designers from Airion Health LLC to prototype a remote-controlled mini air vehicle that can imitate either insect or bird flight, for surveillance purposes.
The microdrone will have the ability to change velocity without the support of a high-powered computer, according to a service release that states the team are using a 2014 patent for their project.
"Controllable forces would be generated by the wings based on position and velocity profiles, resulting in time-varying wing upstrokes and downstrokes, which, at times, may be asymmetrical," the release states.
The microdrone could be used for surveillance in the field or over military bases; or to stake out targets before personnel or other aircraft get to the battlefield, military.com reported.
The release also states that Arion and the Air Force Research Lab will develop a workable "micro air vehicle," or MAV, by early next year.
In January this year the service signed a non-exclusive patent license agreement, or PLA, with Airion for the licensing of the government-owned invention.