Although wing-flapping micro-drones do already exist, the things tend to be quite fragile – and thus not ideally suited to real-world use. An experimental new one, however, utilizes a softer mechanism ...

In 2014 and 2015, at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, a strange-looking twin-boom aircraft called Proteus spent six months flying with wings that bent instead of ...

Airbus created the AlbatrossONE, a small-scale remote-controlled aircraft with wingtips that can flap like a bird during turbulence to better handle the strong gusts of winds. These hinged, flapping ...

For nearly 10 years, engineers at Virgin Atlantic say they have been working on what will now be the world’s first aircraft with flappable wings. The Dreambird 1417, modeled after a bird in flight, ...

Bio-inspired wind sensing using strain sensors on flexible wings could revolutionize robotic flight control strategy. Researchers at Institute of Science Tokyo have developed a method to detect wind ...

Since the dawn of aviation, birds have been an inspiration for visionaries of flight. And now, engineers are once again looking to feathered friends to inspire the next generation of aircraft wings.

As we’re starting to get used to the idea of unmanned drones dropping deliveries on a regular basis, scientists are already working on changing them. How about watching a drone flap its wings on its ...

There are no powered spinning propellers in nature. When evolution has found an advantage to producing thrust in a fluid, it has done it mainly by flapping things back and forth. This new VTOL ...

WASHINGTON — A new study sheds light on just how efficiently the world’s largest soaring bird rides air currents to stay aloft for hours without flapping its wings. The Andean condor has a wingspan ...

At this point, building a flying vehicle isn’t terribly hard. Aviation enthusiasts can buy DIY kits and build themselves a plane that can easily and safely take to the skies. But a flying vehicle that ...