Miniature surveillance aircraft wouldn’t need to return to base if it were able to cling on to overhead power lines in order to recharge their batteries, and now the smart engineers over at MIT have taken one step closer to making such a situation a possibility. They have managed to make the aircraft slow down and land on wires by using its wings, very much like how a bird does it. When approaching the wire, the nose of the aircraft will be pointed upwards to slow it down, allowing it to land on the wire. It’s a pretty nifty trick, and not a move you’d expect to see from an aircraft. Check out a video of it in action after the jump.
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