A duck-like drone is being developed by the US Navy. The drone, the Flimmer (Flying Swimmer), is able to fly and swim both. According to reports, the drone can arrive at operational areas more promptly by flying over the surface of the water.

The drone is made up of a rear-facing propeller and wings together with four fins and they adapt according to activity of the robotic craft.

According to Dan Edwards of the NRL’s Electronic Warfare Division, who is leading the Flimmer project, “Experimentation with the Flying WANDA configuration continues. Future flights will explore the performance envelope using the fins as active control surfaces in the air and will continue the landing work”.

Scientists successfully tested the performance of a ‘Test Sub’, which united a traditional submarine shape with a traditional aircraft shape. After that, the findings were used in a flying version of the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL)’s WANDA (Wrasse-inspired Agile Near-shore Deformable-fin Automaton) drone.

NRL is looking forward to make the Flying WANDA model's landing technique faultless, so that it can dive into rough seas. If the project works out, the US navy can send out some drones and can operate them when the area is clear.

According to the NRL’s Spectra magazine, the drone has four fins and a wing, with the two fins at the back, built up on the tips of the wing. Flying WANDA’s stability and control was confirmed by test flights, and scientists have begun testing the most effective ‘landing mode’ in order to protect the fin mechanisms.

While flying, WANDA reached speeds of up to 57 mph, and only 11 miles per hour in the water.