New Controls Allow Airplanes to Land like Birds

A group of investigators at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announces the development of a new control system for airplanes that allow the aircraft to land as birds do. The experts even demonstrated their concept using a foam glider, which was equipped with a single motor. The group made the instrument land on a perch, in a manner similar to the one employed by a parakeet.

The achievement is extremely important for advancing the field of avionics. At this point in time, despite massive advancements in technology, the air flight industry is still plagued by large issues. For starters, consider how a plane lands. Even with the breaks activated when the wheels touch down, it takes about a mile for an aircraft to stop. Airplanes that land and take off vertically are prohibitively expensive, and take just as much time to land as the other variety.

Scientists working in this field know that birds are the ultimately objective in the avionics industry. These animals are capable of darting at high speeds, and then stopping mid-flight, and calculating a fast landing on an object as narrow as a telephone wire. Over millions of years of evolution, the creatures have adapted to these tasks, which they can now perform instinctively. The goal of the MIT group was to replicate this ability in their new setup, an achievement that could thoroughly innovate the industry.

The experts explain that birds make use of a physical phenomenon called “stall” in order to be able to land on narrow obstacles. This means that, as they approach their targets, they tilt their wings at a very sharp angle, producing vortices and turbulences in the airflow above, beneath and behind them. In the case of airplanes, the wings never tilt more than a few degrees from the optimum level. By tilting the wings at a sharper angle, the plane would risk falling out of the sky, ScienceDaily reports.

The MIT group is working on developing computer models that could help future generations of robotic airplane to land like birds. This is very difficult, because the mathematical equations underlying stall landings are not as clear-cut as the ones governing the airflow that keeps regular aircraft flying. The team is also developing error-correction mechanisms for their simulations. If successful, the future could see flying robots getting their energy in the field directly, by simply landing on power lines.