On this week’s news update…

Game-Changing Landing System

A game-changing landing system...

Hummingbirds in Tight Spaces

…how hummingbirds fit in tight spaces…

Shape-Changing Fabric

…and a fabric that changes shape when heated.

First up…

autorotation landing
When a helicopter loses power, pilots have to carry out a maneuver called an autorotation landing—and it must be done before the blades stop spinning.

To do this they have to perform 4 steps. First, the Entry, which stabilizes the aircraft. This needs to be performed within two seconds of the engine stopping. Next, the Glide brings the aircraft down, and then the Flare to slow the helicopter before finally Landing. Until now, it has not been possible to create an automatic safety system that can perform these steps, but engineers at SkyRyse have carried out the first successful automatic autorotation emergency landing using an onboard computer to land the helicopter instead of the pilots.

They plan to launch the technology in the New Year, with the hope of making flying a helicopter much safer.

Up next…

Most birds can fly into tight spaces to search for food by bending their wings, but hummingbirds can’t bend their wings when they are flying. To find out how hummingbirds fit into tight spaces to reach insects or nectar, Scientists at the University of California carried out a series of experiments.

They discovered the birds use two methods. One where they fly sideways through the gap, with one wing pointing forward and the other wing pointing backward. And another, faster method where the birds stop flapping their wings mid-flight and hold them close to their body so they can quickly glide through the narrowest of gaps.

Scientists noticed that the birds chose this faster approach more often when they became familiar with a tight space—giving scientists an insight into the problem-solving and risk-assessment skills of hummingbirds, which they hope can inspire future designs for drones or other small vehicles created to fly in tight spaces.

And finally…

FibeRobo

Scientists at MIT have created a new kind of fabric, called FibeRobo. FibeRobo shrinks when heated then quickly returns to its previous length when it cools. It was created using a purpose-built machine that produced this new material from a liquid crystal solution. It takes one day to create 1 km of fiber that can be used in embroidery, weaving looms, and knitting machines to make clothes.

To demonstrate the potential for this new fabric, scientists have already created an exercise top using FibeRobo which contracts during a workout to support the wearer's body as they move—they hope this will be one of the main uses for the new material.

Now they are developing a sustainable version that they hope could one day be sold in stores alongside traditional wools and threads, so anyone could make shape-changing clothes and potentially make them commonplace.

That's all for this week, we'll see you next time!