FlyTech Dragonfly
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The Flytech Dragonfly is a remote-controlled flying toy manufactured by
WowWee WowWee Group Limited is a privately held, Hong Kong–based Canadian consumer technology company. History Initially from Canada, the two founding brothers (Richard and Peter Yanofsky) moved to Hong Kong to form the company in 1982, as an indepe ...
. The Dragonfly has been incorrectly billed as the world's first commercially available RC
ornithopter An ornithopter (from Greek language, Greek ''ornis, ornith-'' 'bird' and ''pteron'' 'wing') is an aircraft that flies by flapping its wings. Designers sought to imitate the flapping-wing flight of birds, bats, and insects. Though machines may dif ...
(flapping wing aircraft). It was actually preceded by several other products, including Hobbytechnik's Skybird, Park Hawk, and Slow Hawk radio controlled ornithopters, and the Cybird radio-controlled ornithopter from Neuros. The Dragonfly is made from lightweight but strong materials and has a crash-resistant structure. It is rechargeable and has multiple modes for beginner and advanced users. The Dragonfly is not a robot like the majority of WowWee's current products, such as the
Robosapien RoboSapien is a toy-like biomorphic robot designed by Mark Tilden and produced by WowWee toys. Released in 2004, the Robosapien is preprogrammed with moves, and also can be controlled by an infrared remote control included or by a PDA. The produ ...
and the Roboreptile. Replacement wings are available for purchase.


History

The Dragonfly was invented by Sean Frawley and Dan Getz who began experimenting with ornithopters while they were still teenagers. The four-winged design of the Dragonfly was based on a previous rubber-band-powered ornithopter kit designed by Nathan Chronister and manufactured by The Ornithopter Zone. It also uses the same flapping wing design as the DelFly. The newly available micro-sized motors and batteries developed for cellular telephones made it possible to build an electric-powered, radio-controlled version. Mr. Frawley has since earned a degree in
aerospace engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is s ...
from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and now works for WowWee. The Dragonfly was first introduced at the January 2007 CES show in
Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...
, and was being sold in
RadioShack RadioShack (formerly written as Radio Shack) is an American electronics retailer that was established in 1921 as an amateur radio mail-order business. Its parent company was purchased by Tandy Corporation in 1962, which shifted its focus from ma ...
stores in the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
in February 2007.


Hardware

The Dragonfly is made of lightweight materials that are strong and crash-resistant. Its gears and internal frame are made of
Delrin Polyoxymethylene (POM), also known as acetal, polyacetal, and polyformaldehyde, is an engineering thermoplastic used in precision parts requiring high stiffness, low friction, and excellent dimensional stability. Short-chained POM (chain length ...
. These parts, and its other internal electronics, are protected by a body molded from Expanded Polypropylene.
Carbon fiber Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers ( Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon comp ...
rods give the Dragonfly's wings strength, while
Mylar BoPET (biaxially oriented polyethylene terephthalate) is a polyester film made from stretched polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and is used for its high tensile strength, chemical stability, dimensional stability, transparency reflectivity, an ...
film give them lift and thrust.Block, Jeff (2004).
Interview With Sean Frawley, Creator of the FlyTech Dragonfly
RoboCommunity.com'', Apr 20, 2004
At 25 grams, its very light nature makes it easily susceptible to gentle wind currents. The Dragonfly operates for approximately 5 to 10 (rarely 15) minutes on a single charge of its
lithium polymer battery A lithium polymer battery, or more correctly, lithium-ion polymer battery (abbreviated as LiPo, LIP, Li-poly, lithium-poly, and others), is a rechargeable battery derived from lithium-ion and lithium-metal battery technology. The primary differ ...
. The Dragonfly recharges by plugging into its remote control unit, which itself requires 6
AA batteries The AA battery (or double-A battery) is a standard size single cell cylindrical dry battery. ANSI and IEC battery nomenclature gives several designations for cells in this size, depending on cell features and chemistry. The IEC 60086 system c ...
. Charging time is about 20 minutes.


Other versions

*''FlyTech Dragonfly'' comes in multiple colors, blue and green are the most commercially available, while red/orange ones are less common. *One version of the ''Dragonfly'' is designed to resemble Barry B. Benson from the 2007 DreamWorks animated film ''
Bee Movie ''Bee Movie'' is a 2007 American animated comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and Columbus 81 Productions, and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Directed by Simon J. Smith and Steve Hickner from a screenplay by the writing team o ...
''. *A Toys-R-Us exclusive variant called the Hornet had a more wasp-like body.


References


Further reading


Gizmodo article from January 6, 2007


External links

*
The Ornithopter Zone
– Sean Frawley's original company
FlyTech Dragonfly Home
o
RoboCommunity
– The official WowWee Robotics user community
UK info site about the Flytech Remote Control DragonflyVideo of Dragonfly flying filmed at half-speedFan-site, photo gallery, forums and review with pictures of Dragonfly

Flytech Dragonfly
Information page (plus YouTube video) it is a big fly
Flytech Dragonfly Inventor Sean Frawley
– a discussion of remarkable materials, painstaking development and that spark of inspiration.

{{WowWee Robots Radio-controlled aircraft 2000s toys Unmanned aerial vehicles of the United States Entertainment robots Robotic animals Ornithopters WowWee Products introduced in 2007 Micro robots Dragonflies