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By Eddy Metcalf |
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March 2, 2011 - AeroVironment, Inc. announced it has
accomplished a technical milestone never before
achieved, controlled precision hovering and fast-forward
flight of a two-wing, flapping wing aircraft that
carries its own energy source, and uses only the
flapping wings for propulsion and control. The milestone was part of the Phase II contract awarded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to AV to design and build a flying prototype "hummingbird-like" aircraft for the Nano Air Vehicle (NAV) program.
Two-wing, Flapping Aircraft Hovers and Flies in Any
Direction, total Weight of Two-thirds of an Ounce
Includes Batteries and Video Camera. |
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The final concept demonstrator is called the 'Nano Hummingbird' and is capable of climbing and descending vertically, flying sideways left and right, flying forward and backward, as well as rotating clockwise and counter-clockwise, under remote control and carrying a video camera payload. During the demonstration the Nano Hummingbird flew in and out of a building through a normal-size doorway.
“The
historic achievement made by the Nano Hummingbird is an example
of the leading-edge innovations introduced and deployed almost
routinely by the AeroVironment UAS team,” said Tom Herring, AV
senior vice president and general manager of Unmanned Aircraft
Systems.
“From the
battle-proven Raven, Wasp and Puma small UAS to the tiny Nano
Hummingbird to Global Observer, the largest, highest and longest
flying UAS, AeroVironment continues to define the future of
unmanned aircraft systems. Our mission in doing so is to provide
our customers with advanced tools that help them succeed.” The hand-made prototype aircraft has a wingspan of 16 centimeters (6.5 inches) tip-to-tip and has a total flying weight of 19 grams (2/3 ounce), which is less than the weight of a common AA battery. This includes all the systems required for flight; batteries, motors, communications systems and video camera. The aircraft can be fitted with a removable body fairing, which is shaped to have the appearance of a real hummingbird. The aircraft is larger and heavier than an average hummingbird, but is smaller and lighter than the largest hummingbird currently found in nature. |
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"The success of
the Nano Hummingbird was highly dependent on the intense combination of
creative, scientific, and artistic problem-solving skills from the many
AV team members, aided by a philosophy of continuous learning, which we
feel was only possible due to the unique R&D environment here at AV,"
said Matt Keennon, AV's project manager and principal investigator on
the NAV project.
The technical
goals for the Phase II effort were set out by DARPA as flight test
milestones for the aircraft to achieve by the end of the contract
effort. The Nano Hummingbird met all, and exceeded many, of the
milestones:
1. Demonstrate
precision hover flight within a virtual two-meter diameter sphere for
one minute.
2. Demonstrate
hover stability in a wind gust flight which required the aircraft to
hover and tolerate a two-meter per second (five miles per hour) wind
gust from the side, without drifting downwind more than one meter.
3. Demonstrate a
continuous hover endurance of eight minutes with no external power
source.
4. Fly and
demonstrate controlled, transition flight from hover to 11 miles per
hour fast forward flight and back to hover flight.
5. Demonstrate
flying from outdoors to indoors, and back outdoors through a normal-size
doorway.
6. Demonstrate
flying indoors 'heads-down' where the pilot operates the aircraft only
looking at the live video image stream from the aircraft, without
looking at or hearing the aircraft directly. 7. Fly the aircraft in hover and fast forward flight with bird-shaped body and bird-shaped wings. |
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