phantom sentinel
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Tracing the origins of the multirotor drone, for business and pleasure
We humans have searched for ways to join our avian friends in the air for ages and while some have gone the distance, most of us will settle for the secondhand thrill of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Although full-sized military tests of propeller-laden vertical take off and landing (VTOL) crafts may have underwhelmed, a variety of scaled down multirotor drones have found their niche. Recent improvements in programming, stabilization, power and price have turned these backyard playthings into high-definition eyes in the sky -- for better or worse. This week's Rewind skims the history of these flying machines over the years as they've grown fragile buzzing toys into tools for capturing majestic scenery, inspecting machines and structures, scouting dangerous terrain and occasionally having a little fun.
Phantom Sentinel, the new invisible, boomerang-like UAV
This whole "war on terror" thing sometimes reminds us a bit of that comic "Spy vs. Spy" -- each time we turn around, another company comes out with a way to ratchet espionage tech up a notch. We thought that the Lethal Frisbee UAV was cool, but we just found something that might in fact be a bit sweeter. Meet the "Phantom Sentinel," the latest from VeraTech Aero in Minnesota, which is a boomerang-like device for spying on our crafty foes on the other side. Apparently, as the UAV rotates it becomes nearly invisible in the sky while its cam takes quick snapshots of the scene below, then transmits them back to a soldier on the ground. We're assuming that those crazy goggles the other G.I. is wearing in this photo are able to translate that dizzying number of spinning images to something that a human brain can make sense of.[Via DefenseTech]
