Patent ID: 7789339

Claim:
An autonomous modular flyer operable to loiter over an area of interest at a first high altitude, comprising: an airborne object having two wings, each wing having a wingtip, the wingtips being operably joinable to at least one other autonomous modular flyer's wingtips to form an aggregation when a first predetermined condition is met, and being operably disaggregable from the at least one other autonomous modular flyer's wingtips when a second predetermined condition is met; wherein each said autonomous modular flyer includes first and second side-force controllers being respectively located on the bottom of the port and starboard wings, the side-force controllers being configured to impart selective aerodynamic forces along a lateral axis of the flyer resulting in lateral translation during flyer aggregation, each side-force controller being in line with the center of gravity of the flyer, wherein the aggregation forms a multiple-articulated flying system having a high aspect ratio wing platform, operable to loiter over the area of interest at an altitude at least as high as the first high altitude, and wherein, when changing directions, the autonomous modular flyers in the aggregation are operable to disaggregate prior to, and re-aggregate once, each autonomous modular flyer in the aggregation has individually changed directions.