Birds are so much more maneuverable than our airplanes are today.
Birds can hover, they can fly backwards and sideways.
Anna McGowan, program manager for the Morphing Project at NASA's Langley Research Center. And air-cars are only the beginning. Among the possibilities being looked into are self-healing wings that flex and react like living organisms, versatile bombers that double as agile jet fighters, and swarms of tiny unmanned aircraft. The Morphing Project works towards finding out what cutting-edge aerospace design will be like 20 years from now. One of its goals is to begin developing the technologies to make it happen.