Nano Hummingbird Spy Drone Being Developed By Pentagon (VIDEO)

A less advanced version of it made the news rounds in 2009, but the latest will blow you away.

It has taken five years to build and cost $4 million, per the Los Angeles Times, but the new model of the Nano Hummingbird drone really looks like a bird flying around. It would allow the military to literally drop a bird at a window ledger for reconnaissance purposes.

"You can use these things anywhere, put them anyplace, and the target will never even know they're being watched," said defense expert Peter W. Singer.

AOL News reports it's just a research project for now, but the battery-powered drone has a front-facing camera and can fly for up to eight minutes at a time.

WATCH:

Comments

[Paul Corusoe]

07:14 PM on 03/20/2011

One of these spy hummingbirds came near me yesterday. I hit it with some Black Flag from an aerosol can and down it went.

[KIampfbeobachter]

07:26 PM on 03/17/2011

So the genial tinkerers who survived in the late Dr. Paul MacCready's company did it again. And this time without a tail to be jettisoned after take off.
Go to Google, type in the above name.

[Manny Smith]

11:32 PM on 03/04/2011

$4m is dirt cheap for something like this. A major part of it is just people's salaries that are on the development team. That's about 40 people getting $50k a year for 2 years.

Even the most liberal of you can't say that that's just a little cool? People made a robotic humming bird.

[JaxReader]

03:01 PM on 03/06/2011

It is cool, however 4 million dollars to create a humming bird shaped, noisy-low resolution, flying camera, is hardly impressive.

It does not fly like a realistic hummingbird or look like one other than being the hard shape of one. To top it off it only flies for 8 minutes which is pretty useless. If it took 40 people 2 years to develop this, it would not say very much about them.

[JaxReader]

07:10 PM on 03/04/2011

Well this article was a massive disappointment. 4 million dollars for that?

For people that want something more fun, this already exists and it didn't costs 4 million to develop.

http://ardrone.parrot.com/parrot-ar-drone/usa/

[Manny Smith]

11:34 PM on 03/04/2011

O yeah, that looks SO much like a real bird... lol

[JaxReader]

02:53 PM on 03/06/2011

Well my point wasn't that this one looks like a real bird. I posted the link as many people said they wanted something like this, and wish it existed.

However, IMO the 4 million dollar noisy bird shaped one, does not look "SO much like a real bird" to begin with.

[EagleFury]

04:56 PM on 03/04/2011

Omitted from the article is the back story about these tests drawing smirks from the hyper-competitive propeller-heads in the next lab over who recently put the finishing touches on their "self-cloning microbe drone v. 2.0".

[goodgravy]

03:58 PM on 03/04/2011

i love that they are testing it in the parking lot.

[jim nordfield]

02:18 PM on 03/04/2011

cant wait for a cat to get it.

[wjhamilton29464]

02:05 PM on 03/04/2011

Eight minutes can't provide a lot of range.

[Manny Smith]

11:36 PM on 03/04/2011

It can't be useful till it gets about an hours flight time. Better be careful when you see the humming birds coming...

[Blodo]

02:00 PM on 03/04/2011

'BLAM'

Another $1M or so down the tube.

[AquaBuddha]

01:24 PM on 03/04/2011

That turkey drone was just too conspicuous.

[Cleverboots]

02:03 PM on 03/04/2011

LOL! Wonder if they'll try to use it to spy on Americans taking sunbaths?

[Spartacle12]

11:33 AM on 03/04/2011

No wonder so many in the world are starving and uneducated. We just can't get enough war and surveillance machines!

[alterego55]

11:32 AM on 03/04/2011

I want one.

[Imzadi]

07:05 AM on 02/22/2011

Hmmm... Someone's been watching "5th Element" again, I see.

;-)

[fauker1923]

10:30 AM on 02/21/2011

this is a bunch of hooey


loud, short battery power.... hooey

[dennishastings]

03:26 AM on 02/21/2011

Pretty easy to tell that it's not a bird. Maybe if there was a lot of shooting it could pass. But, as others have said, when the military 'unveils' a new item, there's always a more modern and more efficient one either in use or in development. I wanna see the black triangles!! I wanna believe!!