Flying Bird
In 2003 we embarked on an ambitious programme to develop a flying version of Robop. What we set out to achieve was a bird that would take off, climb to a height of several hundred feet then glide in a typical circular hunting pattern. Above all the flying bird had to maintain the peregrine falcon shape. This presented formidable technical problems for our engineering team.
The photograph opposite shows one of the early prototypes. A specialist firm was given a contract to build one of the designs and after some false starts we managed to succeed in making it fly. However, it was extremely unstable. After several crashes and with the whole project going nowhere we decided to cease the development and take a completely new approach.
For assistance we turned to the Aerodynamics Department of Glasgow University. Professor Galbraith was extremely helpful both in explaining why our earlier attempts had not succeeded and in outlining the fundamental aerodynamic principles we had to take into account going forward. He also suggested several different approaches we could take.
After much debate we decided in 2004 to mothball the project until we had more resources in place to attempt a completely fresh approach. Our apologies to those people who were interested in this product after much press coverage.
The photograph opposite shows one of the early prototypes. A specialist firm was given a contract to build one of the designs and after some false starts we managed to succeed in making it fly. However, it was extremely unstable. After several crashes and with the whole project going nowhere we decided to cease the development and take a completely new approach.
For assistance we turned to the Aerodynamics Department of Glasgow University. Professor Galbraith was extremely helpful both in explaining why our earlier attempts had not succeeded and in outlining the fundamental aerodynamic principles we had to take into account going forward. He also suggested several different approaches we could take.
After much debate we decided in 2004 to mothball the project until we had more resources in place to attempt a completely fresh approach. Our apologies to those people who were interested in this product after much press coverage.
