How understanding albatross flight may lead to advances in drone technology

Amazon Prime Air might want to pay attention to this research. Scientists have studied the flight patterns of albatrosses to understand how the animals are able to sustain flight with minimal energy expenditure.

Categories

More like this

Image from the American Physiological Society's website.http://www.the-aps.org/mm/Conferences/APS-Conferences/2014-Conferences/… I am really excited about the comparative physiology conference that starts this weekend in San Diego! Here is a press release about the meeting (author Stacy Brooks…
One of the coolest dinosaurs you learn about as a kid are Pterodactyls (really Pterosaurs, but who's checking). As giant flying lizards, these guys are thought to have dominated the skies long before birds existed (from the late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous, 220-65 million years ago). The…
Who would have thought that the wandering albatross flew around the earth randomly with absolutely no plan? Apparently the person who named it. According to some fishermen, albatrosses look "wicked baked." Scientists used to believe that albatrosses followed a strange mathematical formula when…
Same-sex Attraction Is Genetically Wired In Nematode's Brain: University of Utah biologists genetically manipulated nematode worms so the animals were attracted to worms of the same sex -- part of a study that shows sexual orientation is wired in the creatures' brains. Secrets Behind Butterfly Wing…

from a military perspective, this would allow for weeks worth of intelligence gathering from a single flight. in certain areas of the world a drone could be launched from a separate country far enough away to avoid suspicion. this flight path could save thousands of US military personnel.

By gallagher (not verified) on 09 Feb 2014 #permalink