Nanocardboard Aircraft with No Moving Parts

  • Magazine Article
  • TBMG-37809
Published October 01, 2020 by Tech Briefs Media Group in United States
Sector:
Language:
  • English

Researchers have created tiny aircraft — each weighing about as much as a fruit fly — that have no moving parts. These flyers are made of plates of nanocardboard and levitate when bright light is shone on them. As one side of the plate heats up, the temperature differential gets air circulating through its hollow structure and shooting out of the corrugated channels that give it its name, thrusting it off the ground.