The astonishing Aeroscraft - a new type of rigid airship that's set to revolutionise haulage, tourism... and warfare

• The Aeroscraft can carry three times more than the biggest military cargo planes over thousands of miles
• Heavily backed by the U.S. military, it is now at the prototype stage and is set for its first test flight
• It is capable of vertical take off and landing and doesn't even need a landing strip

...
dailymail.co.uk

In A Gadda Da Vida

Butterfly-Inspired Flying Robots

Iron Butterfly - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

 

The beautiful science of a butterfly's flight  

 "An undergraduate engineering student at Johns Hopkins University, Tiras Lin, has used high-speed, high-resolution cameras to gain a new perspective on the mechanics of a painted lady butterfly's flight patterns. Information gathered from his research may be used to construct better designs for micro aerial vehicles that could be used by the United States military."

Butterfly Flight Inspires Better Flying Robots

"Mechanical engineers aim high-speed video cameras at planet's prettiest bugs to obtain flight insights."

Links:

Johns Hopkins University

webapps.jhu.edu/
Unraveling a Butterfly’s Aerial Antics Could Help Builders of Bug-Size Flying Robots
releases.jhu.edu
Butterfly-Inspired Flying Robots
physicscentral.com


plus.google.com xeabaudoin
plus.google.com Page 3D TODAY

Flying People in New York City

Three human shaped RC planes were flown around New York City to create the illusion of people flying.

A Swarm of Nano Quadrotors

A Swarm of Nano Quadrotors

 

kmelrobotics.com


Swarming their way (gracefully) to a warzone: Amazing flying display by robotic choppers that could one day help our troops. dailymail.co.uk

Ornithopter

AMAZING RC BIRD!! Original RC Ornithopter!

flappingflight.com

A robot that flies like a bird

via youtube.com

more>3D TODAY: Icarus' dream

Icarus' dream

Festo - SmartBird

"SmartBird is an ultralight but powerful flight model with excellent aerodynamic qualities and extreme agility. With SmartBird, Festo has succeeded in deciphering the flight of birds - one of the oldest dreams of humankind."

"This bionic technology-bearer, which is inspired by the herring gull, can start, fly and land autonomously -- with no additional drive mechanism. Its wings not only beat up and down, but also twist at specific angles. This is made possible by an active articulated torsional drive unit, which in combination with a complex control system attains an unprecedented level of efficiency in flight operation. Festo has thus succeeded for the first time in creating an energy-efficient technical adaptation of this model from nature."

Animation SmartBird

festo.com

3d-today label air-swimming

revolutionary-aerospace-solutions

serious-balloon

lighter-than-air

air-swimming

Revolutionary Aerospace Solutions for Transport

Hybrid Air Vehicles Prototype Airship in Flight

"This is the HAV prototype Hybrid Airship. That means it's slightly heavier than air and it uses lift generated by forward motion to keep it in the air. This makes it much easier to handle when it's on the ground. The Lockheed P-791 is similar to this in concept but appears to not be so well designed aerodynamically."

HAV are one of the bidders for the Pentagon's "Long Endurance Surveillance Vehicle" (LEMV).

Hybrid Air Vehicles 
hybridairvehicles.net

Article:

The new vehicle set to revolutionise the skies

bbc.co.uk

3d-today.org #air swimming

A serious balloon

Lighter than Air

AIR SWIMMING

3D TODAY: Revolutionary Aerospace Solutions for Transport http://bit.ly/ghBQpy

A serious balloon

The giant airships which can carry entire buildings hundreds of miles

"Giant balloons that can carry loads over long distances could one day even transport entire buildings.
Australian firm Skylifter is developing a piloted airship that will carry up to 150 tonnes more than 1,200 miles.
They hope that the vehicles could one day carry rural hospitals and disaster-relief centres to remote areas..."

>>:dailymail.co.uk

 More about Air in 3D TODAY

Lighter than Air

AIR SWIMMING

Nasa's cool electric air bike

Lighter than Air

The Future in Motion"E-Green Technologies (EGT) - 21st Century Airships, the leading developers of state-of-the-art technologies for mid, high altitude and heavy-lift airships, announces it has successfully completed its inflation test of the Bullet 580, which is now, the worlds largest airship. 
Find out more about the incredible potential of this new technology...." E-GreenTechnologies.

 

Diaporama

Bullet 580 Renderings - Credit Wade Buffington for EGT

Diaporama

First inflation of E-Green Technologies' Bullet 580 Airship - The World's Largest Airship

e-greentechnologies.com

  

  Up and away! World's largest airship lifts off for the first time

  Article by Claire Bates

  dailymail.co.uk

Air Swimming 

FESTO / AirPenguin 

FESTO / AirArm

3d-today.org

AIR SWIMMING

Air Swimming

Heckpartie mit 3D Fin Ray® Struktur

All of mankind fantasies, myths, hopes, tries and results are strongly connected to Nature.

When they are not, it is just a "yet" as a day comes which reveals Nature had done it before.

But sadly, the main characteristics attached to human's inventivity are force,  colossal amounts of energy and, mutatis mutandis, poor results.

What we have here is beautiful not (only) in terms of aesthetics but mainly in terms of grace, fluidity, smoothness...

A truely amazing invention in its proper sense: taking us out of the maze, freeing minds and, probably enriching the brain with non-violent neuronal connections.

Will these air penguins be one day manned?

Let us dream they will...

So smooth it could be named human fin.

 FESTO / AirPenguin
FESTO / AirArm

YouTube FestoHQ  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPGgl5VH5go