He Insectothopter It was an artificial dragonfly capable of flying up to 200 meters. It was designed by Vought Corp Advanced Technology Center, in Dallas, United States, for the CIA.
The project was started in the early 1970s and closed sometime after 1974. It was hand painted to look as much like a dragonfly as possible.
Espionage project
In Full Cold War, an option was sought to spy on the enemy without raising suspicions. After discarding the idea of a mechanical bumblebee, CIA engineers created a prototype dragonfly. Nicknamed the Insectothopter, it was the first insect-sized unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Under ideal conditions, it had a range of 200 meters and a flight time of 60 seconds.
It was hoped that field agents would be able to pilot this flying insect to approach targets and will use eye reflectors to focus a laser microphone (which detected sound from the distortion of the reflected ray).
The Insectothopter's propulsion system was based on a miniature fluid oscillator, which moved the wings up and down to imitate the flight of a real dragonfly.
Following the example of nature, the CIA engineers were right to choose the dragonfly. Dragonflies are agile trapeze artists, capable of floating, gliding and even flying backwards. They can rotate 180 degrees in three flaps. The Insectothopter's body of 6 centimeters long and with a wingspan of 9 cm was within the range of the actual dimensions of a dragonfly.
Furthermore, dragonflies are native to all continents except Antarctica, so their presence would not be striking.
However, the insect robot proved to be too fragile to be used, as even the slightest breezes would knock it over.
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The news
The first robotic flying insect was developed in the 1970s, but it was too fragile
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.