Now this is a true bird’s eye view of flying. And in the future, this may be how DARPA drones fly too. The footage shows a goshawk flying super-fast through a dense forest, and somehow navigating through it. Its wings occasionally hits trees, but it still manages to zip itself through impossible narrow gaps at high speeds.
So, DARPA wants to create a drone small enough to fit through an open window and hit speeds of up to 45mph, while quickly manoeuvring around obstacles. Basically, it wants to create a drone hawk.
A Goshawk flies at high speed through dense woodland avoiding obstacles. DARPA’s Fast Lightweight Autonomy program aims to develop and demonstrate autonomous UAVs small enough to fit through an open window and able to fly at speeds up to 20 meters per second (45 miles per hour) — while navigating within complex indoor spaces independent of communication with outside operators or sensors and without reliance on GPS waypoints.