A flapping-wing drone disguised as a crow slipped past Air Force radar
Drones built to look like birds evaded detection at Air Force tech exercise
Ornadyne's one-pound O1 ornithopter flaps its wings instead of spinning propellers, mimicking a crow in shape, silhouette, and flight profile. At the Air Force's "Game of Drones" exercise at Edwards Air Force Base in September, sensors from other companies classified it as a bird rather than a drone. It can fly over an hour and up to 10 kilometers, carrying a small camera for surveillance. The company says it can adjust color and wingspan to match local bird species.
We learned during 'Game of Drones' that sensors deployed by the other companies here could not establish our drone using their detection equipment. It registered as a bird, which is exactly what we wanted.
- throwaway270925
2052, Somewhere in the Northern Atlantic. Shipmate Hendricks cant believe his eyes. He seems to have seen something nobody has seen for decades now. After the US-China war - when every drone, spacelaser and soldier was aimed at every last bird on earth in fear of it being an enemy drone - nobody thought there were any left alive. But out here right there in his visor he sees them clear as day, flying around this small rock in the sea without a care in the world. He hurries to the outboat, sets off towards the island, trying to get a picture with his phone the closer he comes. He struggles to get them in focus as the birds start to fly towards him. A quiet "pop" is all thats heard as Hendricks tumbles to the floor. Lying there, blood pooling around him, his phone now showing the picture he took, finally in focus - clearly showing the motors and metal wings of the drones...
Would maybe make a decent twilight zone clip.
- GolfPopper
Birds Aren't Real
- compass_copium
For those who don't know, the CIA had a similar (unsuccessful) program in the 1960s, which was kept secret for decades:
- JKCalhoun
Fascinated with ornithopters—probably since reading "Dune", 45 or so years ago as a teenager.
(I may have been fascinated beforehand though—I had a small wind-up one as a kid.)
Kazuhiko Kakuta has a small YouTube channel where he experiments with ornithopter builds (and ornithopter adjacent craft): https://www.youtube.com/@BZH07614/videos
- imhoguy
I wonder if falconry can fill that detection gap. Trained birds are already used to manage wild bird populations at airports. Now time to stop fake birds.