WHAT looks like a flying saucer, takes off like a helicopter and flies like a
plane? The next remote-controlled surveillance aircraft on the hunt for
terrorist fugitives like Osama bin Laden, apparently.
Pilotless aircraft came into their own in the Afghan conflict, greatly
reducing casualties in US Air Force and ground troops on both reconnaissance and
attack missions. But today’s uninhabited aerial vehicles, or UAVs, have big
drawbacks: they need a runway, they are slow and they cannot hover. But a
bizarre machine that aims to fix all these problems passed its first wind tunnel
tests last week at Norway’s…
