In Modern Technology Designs
In 1985, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and AeroVironment used Quetzalcoatlus northropi as the basis for an experimental ornithopter UAV. They produced a half-scale model weighing 40 pounds (18 kg), with a wingspan of 18 feet (5.5 m). Coincidentally, Douglas A. Lawson, who discovered Q. northropi in Texas in 1971, named it for John "Jack" Northrop, a famous developer of tailless flying wing aircraft in the 1940s. The replica of Q. northropi incorporates a "flight control system/autopilot which processes pilot commands and sensor inputs, implements several feedback loops, and delivers command signals to its various servo-actuators." It is on exhibit at the National Air and Space Museum.
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