CIA Used Dragonfly, Catfish as Spy Gadget Models
Tue Oct 28,12:35 PM
The agency also tested a 24-inch-long rubber robot catfish named "Charlie"
capable of swimming inconspicuously among other fish and whose mission remains
secret.
Charlie and the dragonfly were among spy gadgets displayed at CIA headquarters
in an exhibit to mark the 40th anniversary of the Directorate of Science and
Technology. It is not open to the public.
"Charlie's mission is still classified, we can't talk about it," Toni Hiley,
curator of the CIA museum, told Reuters on a tour of the exhibit. "All we can
say is he's our work on aquatic robotic technologies."
After seeing the life-like "insectothopter," Hiley jokes that she cannot look
at a dragonfly in the same way anymore.
In the 1970s the CIA had developed a miniature listening device that needed a
delivery system, so the agency's scientists looked at building a bumblebee to
carry it. They found, however, that the bumblebee was erratic in flight, so the
idea was scrapped.
An amateur entymologist on the project then suggested a dragonfly and a
prototype was built that became the first flight of an insect-sized machine,
Hiley said.
A laser beam steered the dragonfly and a watchmaker on the project crafted a
miniature oscillating engine so the wings beat, and the fuel bladder carried
liquid propellant.
Despite such ingenuity, the project team lost control over the dragonfly in
even a gentle wind. "You watch them in nature, they'll catch a breeze and ride
with it. We, of course, needed it to fly to a target. So they were never
deployed operationally, but this is a one-of-a-kind piece," Hiley said.


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