Micro air vehicle

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Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, California - A Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) flies over a simulated combat area during an operational test flight. The MAV is in the operational test phase with military Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) teams to evaluate its short-range reconnaissance capabilities.

The term micro air vehicle (MAV) refers to a new breed of remotely controlled aircraft (UAV) that are significantly smaller than similar craft obtainable with the current state of the art. The target dimension for MAVs today is approximately six inches (15 centimeters) and development of insect-size aircraft is reportedly expected in the near future. Potential military use is one of the driving factors.

Three types of MAVs are under investigation. Airplane-like fixed wing model, bird- or insect- like ornithopter (flapping wing) model, and helicopter-like rotating wing model.

The range of Reynolds number they fly is similar to that of insect or bird (10³ - 10⁵). Thus some researchers think the understanding of bird flight or insect flight is useful in designing the MAV.

[edit] Further reading

• (2002) in Thomas J. Mueller (Ed.): Fixed and Flapping Wing Aerodynamics for Micro Air Vehicle Applications. AIAA. ISBN 1-56347-517-0. 

[edit] See also

• For early development and several historical MAVs, see Miniature UAVs, which is part of a larger article History of unmanned aerial vehicles.
• Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)
  • Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV)
  • Unmanned Combat Armed Rotorcraft (UCAR)
• Aeroelasticity
• Bird flight
• Insect flight
• AeroVironment

[edit] External links

• University of Florida Micro Air Vehicle Laboratory - Cutting-edge MAV Research
• Miniature Aerial vehicles Research
• Micro Air Vehicles - Toward a New Dimension in Flight
• Entomopter MAV - also see Wikipedia Entomopter reference
• DelFly - a flapping model craft by a team of Delft University of Technology
• Kevin D. Jones's web site - a flapping model using Wing In Ground effect at Naval Postgraduate School
• MAV07 - The 3rd US-European Competition and Workshop on Micro Air Vehicles and the 7th European Micro Air vehicle Conference and Flight Competition web site.
• [1] - The ornithopter website

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