News Physics

Tiny, sunlight-powered aircraft could soar beyond airplanes’ reach

Light is all that’s needed to levitate these microfliers

microflier levitating above a platform

A tiny microflier (gray disk at top) levitates above a mesh platform when illuminated by eight LED lights (yellow) as shown in this illustration.

Matthew Campbell and M. Azadi

By Emily Conover

- More than 2 years ago

Read another version of this article at Science News Explores

Flight isn’t easy at the edge of space.