Exert light pressure on the radio transmitter's stick and the UAV banks around to left or right. Let go and the plane straightens up. Keep your mind focused on the flight path; avoid high trees.
Flying with the aid of a sophisticated autopilot has brought astonishing aerial skills within the reach of utterly inexperienced ground operators. So, in the future, we can all become drone pilots. On a blustery, overcast day, Southampton University researchers were spurring their UAVs, or unmanned aerial vehicles, through a succession of test flights above a private airfield on the edge of the Wiltshire downs. Invited to fly a drone, the Guardian reporter managed, under close supervision, to send the catapault-launched Sulsa (Southampton University laser sintered aircraft) swooping around the skies for minutes without crashing. Strict Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) regulations, known as CAP 722, require that UAVs are kept within vision by ground controllers and must stay below controlled UK airspace. Drones are also banned from flying within 150 metres of any "congested area of a city, town or settlement". Sulsa is produced by revolutionary 3D printing technology which creates solid objects out of cakes of powdered nylon, solidifying designs with laser beams according to a programmed blueprint. The machines cost £250,000 or more. However, to order the Sulsa drone from a contract printer was only £1,200. The curved texture of the surface feels like artificial wood, each layer a 10th of a millimetre thick. Weighing 3kg and with a top speed of 90mph, it has elliptical wings based on those of a second world war Spitfire. Andy Keane, professor of computational engineering at Southampton, said: "If you want to do wildlife filming or covert observation, it may be the answer. We can also fit mini motorbike silencers, though in a battlefield they may not worry so much about sound.".........snip http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/21/printed-drones-southampton-university _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
