First Flight Of The RoboSwift Micro-Airplane Is A Success
The RoboSwift, the micro-aircraft inspired by the swift, has made its first flight. In recent months, aerospace engineering students at Delft University of Technology have developed the aircraft in cooperation with the Experimental Zoology Group of Wageningen University, Netherlands. The small, quiet aircraft is equipped with observation cameras that can be used in the future to study birds or to conduct surveillance of groups of people or vehicles. The National Police Services Agency (KLPD) has announced that it is going to financially support the development of the RoboSwift.
Between 10 and 15 March, the group of students who developed the RoboSwift will be competing in an international contest in India for micro-aircraft: the American-Asian Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) Competition.
KLPD
The Dutch National Police Services Agency (KLPD) is continually looking for innovations that are applicable to police work and sees possibilities in the Roboswift. It is therefore supporting the project financially. For example, the RoboSwift could help the police in case of accidents, demonstrations and in enforcement and surveillance.
Morphing wings
The RoboSwift is characterised by the continuously variable shape of its wings, known as ‘morphing' wings, which are modelled on the wings of the swift. These wings make the aircraft, like its living model, very manoeuvrable and efficient. As a result, the RoboSwift is the first aircraft in the world to have the wing properties of living birds. Wind tunnel tests have shown that it can come remarkably close to the exceptional flying ability of the swift.
With a wingspan of approximately 50 cm and a weight of less than 100 g, the RoboSwift is a good deal smaller than standard model aeroplanes. To gain elevation, it is equipped with a very quiet electric motor with a propeller. The silhouette of the RoboSwift is similar to that of an actual swift, which makes it less noticeable than other observation aircraft and helicopters. The ‘pilot’ is now being trained in birdlike flying behaviour, which will later include gliding flights. During gliding flights, the motor is turned off and the propeller folds up so the aircraft can fly even more quietly and save energy.
If equipped with micro-cameras that can observe in various directions, interesting applications for the RoboSwift are conceivable. For example, in the future the researchers hope to be able to observe wild birds from nearby without disturbing them by using birdlike aircraft such as the RoboSwift. This would allow new forms of biological research to be conducted. It would also make it possible to perform inconspicuous surveillance of groups of people or vehicles (crowd control).
‘Bio-inspired'
The students based the project on the findings of their supervisor, David Lentink of Wageningen University. In April 2007, with several co-authors he published a study in the journal Nature about the aerodynamic properties of the swift. During its lifetime, a swift flies a distance comparable to five roundtrips to the Moon and can remain in the air continuously for 7000 kilometres. Lentink and his associates discovered that the swift can fly so efficiently and manoeuvre so well because it continuously adapts the shape of its wings to the flying conditions. Studies such as his were the inspiration to develop aircraft based on bird's wings, which is known as ‘bio-inspired’ design.
Magnetic Fingerprinting In The Fog?
By monitoring tiny fluctuations in the Earth’s magnetic field caused by a passing plane, a team of European researchers has developed an innovative system to increase airport safety even in the worst weather conditions.
Using magnetic field detectors, a team of researchers, led by Uwe Hartmann and Haibin Gao of Saarland University in Germany, has developed a unique system to pinpoint the location of aircraft at airports even in places where other traffic monitoring systems face difficulties.
Their novel approach, tested at airports in Frankfurt and Saarbruecken in Germany and in Thessaloniki in Greece, relies on an array of small, cheap sensors monitoring the “magnetic fingerprint” of planes – the slight influence aircrafts’ metallic bodies have on the Earth’s magnetic field.
“Our tests have shown that the system detects all passing aircraft, 100 percent of them, and in 75 percent of cases can pinpoint their location to within 7.5 metres – a level of accuracy comparable to most existing air traffic management systems,” Gao says.
Seeing around buildings and through fog
Most importantly, the system, developed under the EU-funded Ismael project, has some unique advantages over the most common ground-based monitoring systems in use today.
Because it relies on detecting changes in the Earth’s magnetic field, the Ismael system can see through obstacles, such as buildings and the fingers of airliner parking bays – structures that create potentially dangerous areas of shadow for radar systems, particularly at large, sprawling airports.
And, unlike cameras or human air traffic controllers, it can monitor planes even in the heaviest downpour or the thickest fog.
“Thessaloniki airport has a major problem with fog, so bad in fact that it has to close for part of the year because air traffic controllers can’t see the aircraft at the end of the runway two kilometres away. In the tests, the Ismael system showed it can solve that problem,” Gao explains.
The project manager says that, in all the trials, the system lived up to the researchers’ expectations, and it has continued to prove its worth in Frankfurt where it is still operating on an experimental basis. The system has also elicited interest from other airport authorities around the world, although it is likely to be several years before it is used commercially.
“You have to use the best components, the best materials and get new equipment certified for use in an airport environment. That all makes sense from a safety point of view, but it also means that it takes seven years, on average, for a newly developed system to be installed,” Gao says.
Seeking partners and investors
The project partners – a mixture of academia and technology firms – have, therefore, approached big equipment manufacturers already supplying the airport market for assistance.
“We are looking for a partnership and investment to take this forward and, so far, there has been a fair amount of interest,” the project manager says.
Even though the certification process is likely to push up costs, Gao assures that the Ismael system will remain a cost-effective way to complement and improve existing traffic management systems at big airports, and to install a comprehensive monitoring system at small airports that may otherwise not be able to afford it.
The sensor units, which are currently about the same size as a PC graphics card, but could be as small as a coin in the future, are expected to cost several hundred euros each. Although an airport could monitor the whole length of its runways with them, possibly by installing them conveniently beneath the runway lights, only a few located at the entry and exit gates to the runways, and in other key areas, would be sufficient to boost safety.
From runways to car parks
In fact, the technology need not be confined to runways and docking bays alone.
“During the course of the project, we saw the potential to use this system in crowded airport parking lots to monitor car traffic and let drivers know where unoccupied spaces are available,” Gao says.
And because systems used in parking lots do not have to meet the same high safety and reliability standards demanded of airport systems, the Ismael technology could start being used in that context much sooner.
Henri Giffard Flies the First Airship
Aviation, term applied to the science and practice of flight in heavier-than-air craft, including airplanes, gliders, helicopters, ornithopters, convertiplanes, and VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) and STOL (short takeoff and landing) craft (see Airplane; Glider; Helicopter). These are distinguished from lighter-than-air craft, which include balloons (free, usually spherical; and captive, usually elongated), and dirigible airships.
Glider A glider at the Wycombe Air Park receives a wing inspection. A glider, having no engine, relies on aerodynamic forces from upcurrents pushing on its long, narrow wings to fly. Although freeflying, the lightweight gliders must first be towed and launched into the sky by another aircraft.
Helicopter in the City Versatile and maneuverable, helicopters are used to make traffic reports, provide aerial coverage of breaking news stories, perform emergency rescues, and deliver business executives to meetings. Helicopters are particularly useful in cities because of their ability to negotiate crowded areas and land in restricted space.
Operational aviation is grouped broadly into three classes: military aviation, commercial aviation, and general aviation. Military aviation includes all forms of flying by the armed forces-strategic, tactical, and logistical. Commercial aviation embraces primarily the operation of scheduled and charter airlines. General aviation embraces all other forms of flying such as instructional flying, crop dusting by air, flying for sport, private flying, and transportation in business-owned airplanes, usually known as executive aircraft.
Versatile and maneuverable, helicopters are used to make traffic reports, provide aerial coverage of breaking news stories, perform emergency rescues, and deliver business executives to meetings. Helicopters are particularly useful in cities because of their ability to negotiate crowded areas and land in restricted space.
An assistant holds the wing of a glider at the Wycombe Air Park as a tow plane prepares to launch it. A glider, having no engine, relies on aerodynamic forces from upcurrents pushing on its long, narrow wings to fly. Although freeflying, the lightweight gliders must first be towed and launched into the sky by another aircraft. The assistant keeps the wing from dropping until the glider achieves liftoff.
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