These New Biodegradable Drones Look Just Like Paper Airplanes

In fifth grade I had to stay after school and chat with my teacher, who had caught me tossing a meticulously crafted Falcon-style paper airplane I made using a pristine 8.5 x 11" piece of printer paper. The glider soared across the class mid-lecture in what appeared like a world record toss. The teacher told me making paper airplanes would do nothing for me except keep me and my classmates distracted. There was no future in becoming an expert folder.

Oh, was she wrong. Scientists at the University of Queensland, Australia, recently created two new types of drones that are styled like the paper airplanes of yesteryear.

The first of the two designs, created by Dr. Paul Pounds, looks exactly like your basic airplane model, and is rumored to be so inexpensive and easy to make that it will literally be a single-use drone. The prototype, called the Polyplane, is made of a cellulose sheet with 3D-printed circuits inserted on to the material. The cellulose is then treated with UV lights to make the body a mandible circuit board, which manages the plane's two elevons (the control surface of the flight craft that functions as an elevator and aileron) and thus, the unmanned aerial vehicle's steering.

The biodegradable drone will supposedly be used to monitor large areas of land in the case of a forest fire, though we shouldn't rule out other possible uses, such as spying on foreign military camps. The Polyplanes are so inexpensive that unleashing a deluge of the origami-friendly planes would be a low-risk financial endeavor for the military.

The other design is called the Samara, an eponymous name since the design looks like Mother Nature's organic helicopter: maple seeds, or achenes. This UAV will have a more traditional circuit board attached to a dual edge weight/antenna with a flexible wing and printed circuit board attached.

The Samara is less controllable than the Polyplane, but it will have a slow fall down to earth without the need of a parachute or landing feature.

These drones may just be an experiment, but they could mark the beginning of an innovation trend that focuses on single-use drone technology. Biodegradable drones offer a low-commitment, high-reward design that could be used by anyone from the government and military to elementary school boys who want to spy on their neighborhood by tossing a familiar paper airplane, with a modern science twist.