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I remember seeing a video of the guys flying their R/C
model with the electrostatic sensors on the wingtips,
nose and tail.  It was quite impressive.

I used to work for Rockwell-Collins (avionics) and a
couple guys there knew the people who were doing the
experiments.  The big drawback is that the sensors measure
the electrostatic field of the earth.  You can think
of this field as concentric shells around the earth.
However, geographic features disturb this field.  The
field wants to be parallel to the ground.  When you
introduce things like mountains the field "bends".  So,
if you fly near a mountain, an autopilot connected to
these sensors would think that following the contour of
the mountain is level :)


Dan
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Daniel M. Olsen              970.225.8104 phone
Principal Software Engineer  970.690.1848 cellular
Engineering Animation, Inc.  888.390.7339 fax
http://www.eai.com           olsen@eai.com