A flying drone modeled after the underwater movements of a jellyfish is the first flying machine that can hover in midair using the force generated by pushing its wings up and down. Researchers from New York University designed and built a 4 inch prototype, which belongs in the class of flying machines called ornithopters that have flapping wings.

A flying drone modeled after the underwater movements of a jellyfish is the first flying machine that can hover in midair using the force generated by pushing its wings up and down.

Researchers from New York University designed and built a 4 inch prototype, which belongs in the class of flying machines called ornithopters that have flapping wings.

Other designs of flying drone ornithopters were based on the wing movement of insects like dragonflies, but these designs were unstable without additional control measures, or too complex to be effective.

But the jellyfish based design might prove to be an important innovation for flying technology that isn‘t modeled after nature’s flight mechanics.

The researchers wrote in their study that “in the future, small-scale flapping-wing aircraft may be used in applications ranging from surveillance and reconnaissance missions to traffic and air quality monitoring. Depending on the application, active control over an intrinsically unstable design may be more desirable than passive stability.”

The flying jellyfish design proved that using the four wing flying system, it could recover from disturbances, remain stable in the air ,and perform maneuvers while flying.