The Dragonfly

As discussed in our previous meeting, your correspondent was tasked to source for an appropriate research subject. This is what I came home with:


The Flytech Dragonfly! This is a radio controlled ornithopter.

An ornithopter is a machine that propels itself through the air by flapping its wings, as opposed to more conventional fixed-wing aircraft, or the rotating wing helicopter. The four wings are powered by cams; the wings on each side of the airframe flaps in the opposite direction, i.e. each stroke squishes air out between them to give forward thrust and lift. Yaw control is activated by a tail rotor that swings the dragonfly around.

This vehicle certainly has superior maneuverability when compared to similar 2 channel helicopter models, in fact flight characteristics is closer to a 2 channel fixed wings craft: the airframe launches forward in a series of stalls and dives.

This is a really well thought out design. It is robust, all the structural components are made from carbon fibre. It has survived repeated crashes and rough handling by research assistant #1. It is easy to repair, one of the wing struts were snapped into two by an obnoxious neighbour kid, but luckily the kit comes with two spare wings. One can also fine tune the handling characteristics through a selection lever, and attaching a tail ribbon.

Turns out this toy was designed by teenagers (Dan Getz and Sean Frawley) who sold the rights to WowWee (the toy company). They went onto study at Embry-Ridle Aeronautics University but remained as consultants for WowWee.

Here is a video of the dragonflyer in action at the WowWee office:



Black Mamba, you got to get one of these!