Maybe.

On Saturday at the Jordan River modelport, eight teams of mostly graduate students tested radio-controlled ornithopters - insect-like airplanes that, once refined, could be used, say, to detect deadly chemicals, get a bug's eye view of a battlefield, or like a fly on the wall, listen in on conversations.

"We're developing technology that could allow these small planes to be used by the military," said Jerry Bowman, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Brigham Young University, which hosted the 10th annual Micro Air Vehicle Competition.

The contest doles our $4,000 in prize money and is sponsored by NASA, U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, Aerovironment (which creates unmanned aerial vehicles and has contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense), the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and The Dow Chemical Co.

For now, the students - from Utah, Arizona, Florida, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and South Korea - are simply trying to get the ornithopters to fly in a figure-8 pattern around two poles. The smallest plane to make the most turns wins.

The planes look like birds or large dragonflies. They have flapping wings and some buzz like a large insect. While the smallest planes used by the military have 3-foot wingspans, according to Bowman, most of these planes are measured in inches.

With the possible application of using the gadgets in buildings, speed is not the goal.

"The final goal is to reach the maneuverability of a hummingbird," said Bill Silin, 29, an aerospace graduate student at the University of Arizona, who researched the birds while designing his team's ornithopter, which has wings made of mylar.

"It's exciting because it's pushing the envelope of aircraft," said teammate Bret Becker, 26.

With their 2-foot long ornithopter, the University of Utah team knew its device was "massive." But it had more power, noted U. mechanical engineering graduate student Ari Fershtut, 25. "What good is an ornithopter if you can't strap a sensor to it? Otherwise, you've just got a hobby."

Imagining future applications, teammate Jared Terry, 26, said the ornithopters would make good spy equipment because they approximate the sound and look of a bird. "People maybe don't necessarily realize there's a camera on board."

There were two other events at the competition. In "surveillance," teams had to remotely fly a plane equipped with a video camera, weighing less than a penny, to get a picture of a 5-foot letter - in this case a "Y" - hidden in the brush near the Jordan River. The pilots guided their planes by watching video footage on a screen. The smallest plane to snap the picture won. Bowman said such planes could have search-and-rescue applications.

The third event was called "endurance." Planes were folded into a container the size of a 35 mm canister and pilots had 10 minutes to get them airborne.

And, as with the other events, the smaller the plane the better.

hmay@sltrib.com