It began with structural analysis of a dragonfly wing.
The first task was to create
flow in the DelFly II.
Wing flexibility in ‘clap-and-fling’
and ‘clap-and-peel’ were tested.
But what of appearance variation cues
and obstacle avoidance?
In the end they took a sky segmentation approach,
while others dealt with complex tail effects
in flapping flight. Even so, after years of work,
hear-and-avoid problems beset
indoor and outdoor dragonflies.
All parties were insisting on micro air vehicles
quieter than any insect that ever hovered
over a lake (‘water source’).
One bright spark solved it,
You want quiet? I’ll give you guys quiet, he said.
This is gunna be the quietest bug on the planet,
quieter than anything we’ve done before;
quieter than any soft-spoken woman at a well
shielding her eyes from the glare,
from dreams of water
in the insectless heat of high summer.