Further funding for MAVs
Further funding for MAVs
Keywords Aircraft industry, Camera industry
Here's a concept to intrigue both the paranoid and the inquisitive: Micro air vehicles, tiny aircraft that can support monitoring cameras, or other surveillance gizmos. So small literally hand-sized that they may not even be noticed in use, these MAVs may become commonplace in the early part of the next century, a mere few years hence. First buyers, of course, will be the US military and law enforcement communities. But it's easy to see how environmental regulators,surveyors and all kinds of other folk would also want to use such devices.
It's not a sci-fi pipedream. DARPA, which funds novel defense concepts, just shelled out the first round of an eventual $35 million in R&D funding for MAVs. This first batch covers flight-enabling technologies, some fundamentals for the development of planes no more than 15cm. in size. Futuretech, a monthly publication from Technical Insights, neatly rounds up the inside story of how these devices are being developed.
Says editor/analyst Charles Joslin: "The MAV is the proverbial 'fly on the wall', that will let us in on what's going on. The idea is for it to fly around to see what you want it to see, send it back to you immediately, and return to fly again. That is just what military leaders have asked researchers to provide, and what civilian spies, surveillance agents, police and emergency agencies, as well as people with less public-spirited motives, will covet as soon as it becomes available".
Price tags of $1,000 are in view, and not too far in the future. Some fundamental aerodynamic issues need to be cracked, and load-carrying and suitable power sources developed.
Futuretech is available from Technical Insights for $450 ($465 outside the USA). For further details, contact Peter Savage, Editor-in-Chief, Technical Insights, 32 North Dean Street, Englewood, NJ 07631-2807. Tel: 201-568-4744, ext. 231; Fax:201-568-8247. Internet: pr@insights.com. WWW site at http://www.insights.com.
