The French Ministry of Defense recently announced a drone project inspired by bird and insect flight movements. The French Ministry of Defense revealed that the BIOFLY project aims to develop a flapping wing drone that can glide, fly by flapping its wings, and hover, a combination of features lacking in fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft.

The flapping wings combined with the drone's small size and lightweight (50 grams) make it look like a bird or insect from a distance.

BIOFLY is based on a 2014 "electronic bird" project - a biomimetic bird drone - with "carbon fiber wings and a polymer body". The goal of this project is to improve the "propulsion system, wing movement mechanism" and flight capability of the "biomimetic bird". Developers are building a new "flapping wing flight structure" that will eliminate "flapping wing induced vibrations" and include an onboard camera with seismic capabilities.

These improvements include increased driving assistance, automation of flight processes such as straight-line flight, the ability to change flight speed, and the possibility of quasi-static flight, but also improve the speed of these drones
The drone will have the speed and endurance of a fixed wing drone, as well as the hovering capability of a rotary wing drone. Its invisibility, lightness, and smartphone remote control function will make it an ideal tool for soldiers to dismount.

The project is funded by the US Defense Innovation Agency and has also received support from TPE XTIM, the Institute of Sports Science at Aix University Marseille, and the Lorrain Laboratory for Computer Science and Its Applications.

Source: Military of Strong Countries