'Flying carpet' of conductive plastic takes flight

Two frequencies of cycling show the sheet "rippling" in a display of small propulsive force

A miniature magic carpet made of plastic has taken flight in a laboratory at Princeton University.

 The 10cm (4in) sheet of smart transparency is driven by "ripple power"; waves of electrical current driving thin pockets of air from front to rear underneath. The prototype, described in Applied Physics Letters, moves at speeds of about a centimetre per second.

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