Design and Development of a Thrust Augmented Entomopter An Advanced Flapping Wing Micro Hovering Air Vehicle

In 1997, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency initiated a program to demonstrate a new family of very small or ‘micro’ air vehicles. The purpose of the program was to develop air vehicles with a maximum dimension of 15 cm, and that are capable of sustained flight, for useful military missions at an affordable cost. In response to the fundamental shortcomings of the vehicles that evolved from this program, in particular those that were VTOL capable, a new design solution, referred to as a Thrust Augmented Entomopter (TAE), was developed. The TAE configuration is a hybrid insect based flapping wing MAV, that is able to minimize power requirements and maximize payload capability in hover, whilst simultaneously overcoming the speed limitations of pure flapping wing configurations in forward flight – thereby providing an optimum design solution to the MAV challenge.