Polytechnic students fly plane with mobile phone

Moga, Sep 7 (UNI) The enterprising research team of Mechanical Engineering Polytechnic College in Dattewal village have done it again----this time flying a model of a plane with the help of a mobile phone.

The team led by Gurwinder Singh after months of labour and hardwork succeeded in putting a small sized replica of aneroplane into the air with the help of a cell phone. The cell phone was used for flying guiding the plane in the air and then make it to land.

'' We designed the plane and then with the help of a cell phone flew it for few minutes last week'', Gurwinder Singh told UNI here today. To testify his claims he demonstrated the entire experiment with the three-feet long plane which the team has designed.

Besides Gurwinder, the team consists of Gulab Singh, Simarpal Singh and Navdeep Singh, all students of the institute.

Explaining the details, Gurwinder said that a programmable electronic circuit was built in the model aircraft and signals to this circuit were sent by the cell phone. '' The cell phone basically functions like the remote control of a television'', he explained.

He explained that though the 'test flight' was a success but still a lot of research is needed to be done. '' We are working on perfecting the art of the speed, height and direction of the plane'', he added.

''Such types of pilotless planes if fitted with information collecting devices can be helpful for the defence services to get information of enemy build ups along the border'', he said. By using a mobile phone network the plane can be sent a few kms into the enemy territory for collecting vital informations, he added.

A cell phone plane would also aid the farmers as it can help in surveying the agricultural land and the crops. '' A farmer having a large sized agricultural farm can sit at home and can come to know if his crop is healthy or has been infested by the pests, he said.

The plane fitted with information collection gadgets will be useful to survey floods and mountainous areas.

Gurwinder and his team had last year used a cell phone to start a tubewell motor. The teams most prestigious experiment is to invent an advanced earthquake alert system.

UNI