Comment by MarcS on March 25, 2011 at 1:45pm

Festo has a really good feeling what to show to get publicity.

Too sad these projects (penguins, airfish....) are really only that: publicity. Most are built by external companies and there is no intention in further developement (by festo themself). The SmartBird will be the main attraction at the upcoming hannover fair, one of the biggest industrial fairs worldwide. Festo gets lots of media attention they would not get without that (realtively small booth compared to the big players..), even if they deserved it (their products are really great, have used pneumatic cylinders, tubing and connectors for many airblanes!)

Great bird anyway, the animation in the second video shows some interesting inside. No magic, just brilliant model airplane engineering. If I see that my silverlit IBird has 5min endurance, this could fly for some time!

 

Comment by I.S. on March 25, 2011 at 2:24pm

Sad to hear that.

Wish this kind of research and designs had further projection.

Must these kind of projects have to receive mil funds or otherwise fell in oblivion?

What a pity.

Comment by Paul Marsh on March 25, 2011 at 6:27pm

Just to clarify--my question about applications was not meant to say that without an immediate problem to solve such research should be dropped.  I just wanted to know if anyone knew of any practical applications.  Really, it was that simple.  Also, there was a post here recently about a similar hummingbird project.  So this sort of thing is being researched for more than advertising, I assume, but I'm still wondering about how they might be used.  Actually, even really cool toys is a legitimate application.

Comment by Duane Brocious on March 25, 2011 at 6:32pm

Military and Gov't recon/spying are the obvious legal reasons for mimicking wildlife. A fake bird will get little notice while a UFO looking thing will get (has been) shot to pieces.

Have you never heard the phrase "to be a fly on the wall"? They are getting there.

 

I sure can think of a lot more illegal reasons for them though.

 

 

Comment by I.S. on March 25, 2011 at 7:09pm

@Paul

I agree with you.

I can't find any killer app for this, but it may be because of my lack of imagination and/or becuase this thing is at its very early stage.

This design results in a quieter, and safer (no fast spinning props) much friendlier to use on fairs, mseums, parks... Don't think quieter=spy-usage but nicer, less noise pollution and safer.

In addition it might be the day that this kind of approach become more efficient than traditional proppeller propulsion.

Comment by Duane Brocious on March 25, 2011 at 7:29pm

High efficiency vs Costs of production, development, implementation etc.

 

Been a dilema for a few thousand years. "Should we throw away our bronze swords and adopt the iron ones the Scythians are using?"

Comment by Chris Card on March 26, 2011 at 10:24pm

Thats most delicious looking ornithopter I've ever seen. :)
The Iphly would be a very nice way to control it too.
Does entertainment count as an application?

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