Flipping Heck

Flipping Heck It’s A SmartInversion

Revised On
24 December 2021

Introduction

It’s an unusual flying object – this SmartInversion – that propels itself by flipping inside out. Created by engineers at Festo in Esslingen, Germany. It was originally reported in a New Scientist blog in April 2012 which is no longer online. I decided to investigate it further and found it in the Festo archives.

What I’ve Found

At the time it didn’t appear to have a name  so I called it a Flipping Heck as in, “Flipping heck what is it?” Festo did give it a name apparently. It’s called a SmartInversion. I understand it’s filled with helium to keep it afloat so maybe it’s a Flipping Balloon.

Here is a video of the SmartInversion:

Some parts of the video are speeded up. In reality it only moves slowly. Here is a link to Festo’s article.


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Comments

2 responses to “Flipping Heck It’s A SmartInversion”

  1. Chris avatar
    Chris

    Wow, that is remarkable!

    1. Helpful Colin avatar

      It’s a pitty it doen’t contrast with the background it’s filmed against.

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