Street fighting planes

Funded by the US Air Force and NASA, University of Florida aerospace engineers have built prototypes of six inch to two foot drones capable of tight flight manoeuvres in urban environments. Their secret is seagull-inspired wings that morph, or change shape, during flight, transforming the planes’ stability and agility at the touch of a button on the operator’s remote control.

“If you fly in the urban canyon, through alleys, around parking garages and between buildings, you need to do sharp turns, spins and dives,” said Rick Lind, a UF assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering who heads the project. “That means you need to change the shape of the aircraft during flight.”

The Air Force’s Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle and other military drones have been key to military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the drones, which shoot surveillance images and sometimes also fire missiles, are designed to soar high above the landscape, limiting their ability to snoop up close in the windows, alleys, corners and other urban crevices of the tight neighbourhoods that define many cities, Lind said.