ecogeek.org — "One of the NIAC studies that caught my attention is an exploration of the concept of a solar airplane that used flapping motion for propulsion. The text below is in part from a press release from the Ohio Aerospace Institute."
May 17, 2007 View in Crawl 4
profoblivionMay 18, 2007
OH MY GOD! THEY'RE ATTACKING THE PLANET!
error601May 18, 2007
That would be cooling looking but I can't think of a whole lot of applications that can't be done much easier and cheaper using other methods. An ultra light fixed wing aircraft with some solar panels and an electric motor to drive a prop is being done already.
sanmanMay 19, 2007
Wow, now that kid was geeky. They should have used him for Doogie Hauser, instead of Neil Patrick Harris.
kennybainMay 19, 2007
I doubt anything like this would ever become viable for commercial use. However, while watching that, the first thing that came to mind was, "I wonder how long it will take for the military to get their hands on this?!" Paint some feathers on it for camo and you have a predator drone that would be nearly impossible to detect.The second part seems to show another planet, not earth. I could see something like this being used like the Mars Global Surveyor, but at close-in altitudes, not from space. Imagine the possibilities of scanning a distant planet with satellites plus these. I would imagine if setup correctly, these could stay above the surface for the life time of the batteries (as long as they stayed on the sunny side of the planet or were on a tidally locked planet.
restriktedMay 21, 2007
Did anyone else think of Batman's cape/wings when they started talking about how the material deforms with the electric field?
kevhartleyMay 21, 2007
ALL planes wings already flap !It really freaked me out the first time I flew to NY from London !That's why I HATE flying !You will NEVER get me in a plane with wings DESIGNED to flap !
ayyoobsaOct 23, 2007
cool, technology