Lockheed Martin's "Samurai Flyer"

This little guy is about 3 inches long and weighs less than 2 nickels, has vertical takeoff and landing as well as hovering capabilities, and on board video streaming:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/16e5eeb03602.jpg[/atsimg]

And looks like a miniature UFO!

Lockheed Martin's "Samurai Flyer", an aviation design inspired by the maple seed, flies during a demonstration at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Conference August 16, 2011 in Washington, DC. Lockheed Martin unveiled the new design and demonstrated vertical takeoff and landing, stable hover, and on-board video streaming of the aircraft during their demonstration.

latino.foxnews.com...=36

This project, partly funded by DARPA, "aims to develop an extremely small, ultra-lightweight aerial vehicle for urban military missions that can fly both indoors and outdoors and that is capable of climbing and descending vertically as well as flying sideways left and right."

www.msnbc.msn.com...

The Samurai design, says Kingsley Fregene, principal investigator for the program, is inherently stable and has few moving parts, which makes it a robust, aerodynamically clean airframe. Unlike more conventional designs, the entire aircraft rotates.

Have you looked out your window lately?

I'll keep looking for updates...

-Yuk

reply to post by Yukitup


Not sure if its the exact one you have posted on but this is a video i have found.

reply to post by enament


cool toy, the camera seems pointless though.

I want one for Christmas.

GM

reply to post by enament


Outstanding video enament -- thank you. The video stream near the end made my head spin -- it must have been solely for the purpose of evaluating the wing performance, I can't see that type of video providing any real intel if it were in the field!

Thanks again,
-Yuk

You can get plenty dizzy flying in one of those.
Good money wasted on Lockheed Martin to fund hidden projects most likely.
Thats as bad as the Tesla patent for VTOL which he had to correct with a
second patent putting in opposing turbines so he would not spin out of
control. Hint to Lockheed Martin, pay me suka .

reply to post by Grey Magic


If you would have told someone 5-10 years ago that they would invent a flying machine with one wing they would have laughed at you. I would love to get one of these for Christmas.

reply to post by Yukitup


Thank you. I think in the future they may make it so you can view 360 degrees. And actually see something instead of a blur. Like a panorama. This would make a cool toy or big brothers new spying machine.

Originally posted by enament
reply to post by Yukitup

 

Thank you. I think in the future they may make it so you can view 360 degrees. And actually see something instead of a blur. Like a panorama. This would make a cool toy or big brothers new spying machine.

You just hit the nail on the head -- with an electric motor at that size, it could probably be operating within a few feet of a target and that target would never know it was there...

reply to post by TeslaandLyne


Hey T&L - thanks for stopping in, nice to "see" ya!

I picture this little gizmo being utilized in urban areas located in regions of conflict. While at a safe distance away or in a shelter from fire, our forces will be able to send out a couple of these little babies and locate the insurgents / snipers -- thereby removing a great deal of risk to life and limb...

from an engineering standpoint, you can just make a suspended compartment that is separate from the spinning wing motor and that has a separate smaller joystick mechanism to give 360* views left to right and 280* up and down...

the only fluctuation would be that of elevation and turns, otherwise the video would be stable...

I have no idea why they clipped a camera to the spinning wing...

none the less this is pretty cool...god knows how much money went into engineering a modified children's helicopter toy with broader range.

Well if the camera is spinning with the wing, all you have to do, is slow the video's framerate down, and you'd get a nice fluid and viewable 360 panorama, provided that the camera is like some uber-pixel camera.



Peace

now you just got to make that wing really sharp.

that would be a horrifying sight.

Originally posted by Wertdagf
now you just got to make that wing really sharp.

that would be a horrifying sight.

It would be horrifying but only if you were a sparrow.

As you are, the reaction will be, "/say Christ! That little flying bugger just tried to nip me! /grab /stomp /crush"