Flying manta ray blimp
German engineering firm Festo has created this flying manta ray. Dubbed the Air_ray, it's a balloon made of an aluminum-vaporised "PET foil". Inflated with helium, the Air_ray's propulsion system is a flapping wing drive. Each wing has alternating pressure and tension flanks that are attached to an internal set of ribs. The flanks are connected to a remotely controlled servo motor. When pressure is applied to either of the flanks, the wing bends in the opposite direction. By alternating pressure on the flanks, the wings beat. The servos are powered by two 8V LiPo accumulator cells.
The total weight of the Air_ray including the balloon, propulsion system, power supply, and helium is 1.6Kg. Festo has more specs in this PDF.
[via Neatorama]
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Reader Comments
(Page 1)3. kinda reminds me of flying jiffy pop
Posted at 3:54PM on Jun 3rd 2008 by Mike
4. heh, I thought I saw this site on here a couple of years back.
Unrelated to the manta, but their "Airic’s arm" is an awesome piece of bionic tech. As opposed to current artificial limb technology based on servos, this uses a series of pressurised tubes to mimic fluid, muscle movement.
Posted at 3:59PM on Jun 3rd 2008 by Doug
5. That thing is seriously cool. The movement seemed quite fluid. It kind of reminds me of the floating jellyfish.
Posted at 5:40PM on Jun 3rd 2008 by Johnny B. Goode
6. Where can I get one?
Posted at 6:10PM on Jun 3rd 2008 by zorink
7. I wonder how large one of these could be made, and if it could handle any wind hitting it. I would love to see one of these flying around a disaster scene providing cellphone, ham radio and police radio relay.
Posted at 9:58PM on Jun 3rd 2008 by techyguru
8. I know there is a terribly offensive joke about Steve Irwin in there somewhere.
Posted at 12:08AM on Jun 4th 2008 by Kyle
9. such as... "he's not safe even in heaven"?
Posted at 5:30AM on Jun 4th 2008 by s
10. LiPo not lipo (fat)
Posted at 9:49AM on Jun 4th 2008 by g
11. great, the posts ignore uppercase. We're all forced to write like jery yang.
well, the first "L" and "P" are supposed to be uppercase on the above comment.
Posted at 9:52AM on Jun 4th 2008 by g
13. very very cool! ...but you missed their flying jelly fish:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_citFkSNtk
Posted at 2:46PM on Jun 4th 2008 by CodeMonkey
14. I've seen that manta before. Festo is located two small cities next to me. I hope I can work there again in the summer ;) They're one of the best known firms in the are here.
Posted at 3:32PM on Jun 4th 2008 by Schnulli
15. I'm not..... exactly sure, but I could have sworn I saw that at "Design and the Elastic Mind" @ MOMA in NYC.
Posted at 5:45PM on Jun 4th 2008 by T3h_Muffinator
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1. That is seriously cool-looking. The Zeppelin mk2! ; )
Posted at 2:32PM on Jun 3rd 2008 by EvilTwin