Just returned from an enjoyable show. Of particular interest was a flight demo and then close inspection and Q&A session of a million dollar micro ornithopter. Thanks to Matt Keenon of Aerovironment for flying and telling us all about it. The thing was the about the size of a sparrow. The control surface actuators were thin strands of "muscle wire" about as thin as thread. The things contracted when given current. A pager vibrator motor flapped the wings. Flight times are around 25 minutes.... Very cool!
The "bird" that was flown actually had about $450 worth of materials. Darpa funded project and $1,000,000 was spent developing the thing. Plenty other stuff to drool over as well. RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format
