Sat, Feb 22, 2003
But Will They Take American Express?
Israel Aircrafts Industries are developing a tiny
100-gram aircraft with wings the size of a credit card, that can
carry cameras and communications equipment, and would be used to
send battlefield pictures back to a command headquarters. The U.S.
has already developed similar planes and might be using them in the
coming war in Iraq.
IAI, considered a world leader in developing unmanned aircraft
(below), is also at work on unmanned helicopters - and an unmanned
fighter jet.
Already Tested
The tiny plane's prototype has been tested with off-the shelf
parts, including a wing made from an electronic card, while the
engine is hobbyist-sized, and run off batteries. The camera weighs
only a few grams.
The plane can be launched by hand and does not
need wheels to land. The images it relays back to ground control
can be displayed on a laptop or a PDA. Test flights have seen the
plane fly hundreds of meters high for as long as 20 minutes. But
R&D is still in its early stages.
The professional literature in recent years has been speculating
about using miniaturization technologies - including nanotechnology
- for the development of tiny aircraft that can be used during
combat to provide real time images from a battlefield.
Almost Invisible
Due to the tiny size, enemy forces are unable to spot them in
the air, nor can they be picked up by radar. The planes, which can
be controlled from the ground using a mounted camera relaying
images of where the plane is going, as well as images of what it
can see, are small enough to fly into an open window of a building
and send images back to troops nearby, for determination of how
many troops are needed to overcome a force hiding inside.
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