There are such things as flying squirrels, although in fact they actually only glide.

And bats are genuinely flying mammals. Fruit bats are entertaining, if messy.

Why not have real flying monkeys ?

Trained marmoset monkeys could sit in and fly quadcopter drones. An adult marmoset only weighs about 250g, and they are intelligent* and learn quickly. They have excellent binocular vision, manual dexterity and opposable thumbs. The youngsters learn from the adults.

The quadcopters wouldn't be fully independant; a GPS geofence would stop the monkeys actually flying out of the enclosure, and the unit would automatically park and recharge when its battery became depleted.

The 'copters would allow the monkeys to access food high in the trees, and would be entertaining both for them and the human onlookers.

Persuading Martin-Baker to design and manufacture a marmoset -sized bang seat might be a challenge ...

*More intelligent than human helicopter pilots, anyway.
-- 8th of 7, May 20 2019

Riderless Horse Racing Riderless_20Horse_20Racing
Inspired by this idea and [xenzag]'s annotation. [8th of 7, May 20 2019]

Obligatory Reference https://www.youtube...watch?v=PW_02k7LRMo
[Skewed, May 20 2019]

I could well imagine a shrew being taken for a trip on a pigeon's back, so why not as long they have to do something else besides piloting a stupid drone, like knitting a jumper. (for example)
-- xenzag, May 20 2019


Why would marmosets need to knit jumpers ? They have dense fur coats already ... although maybe they're embarrassed to wear them in public, in case they get hassle from the Animal Rights people.

Anyway, we envisage them more in one-piece green military jumpsuits, with little helmets complete with mirror-finish visors.

Eventually, there could be some sort of Flying Monkey Top Gun competition.
-- 8th of 7, May 20 2019


Rescued chickens from factory farms usually have no feathers due to the trauma and cruel conditions. The jumpers are for them. One of my friends knits these for this exact purpose, and needs some help. Get those monkeys trained up!
-- xenzag, May 20 2019


GET OUT OF HERE, YOU FILTHY MONKEY-EXPLOITER ! What are the jumpers knitted from ? Wool ! SHEEP-EXPLOITER !

You should be ashamed of yourself, and your friend*.

*No doubt an imaginary friend as we can't visualize you having real friends, not the way you mistreat and exploit tiny helpless monkeys.
-- 8th of 7, May 20 2019


It would indeed be a interesting experiment but from the learning zero point. The drone just turns up in the enclosure, space for a marmoset and the control stick shaped like a banana.
-- wjt, May 21 2019


Except mamosets don't eat bananas. You need something that's interesting, but not necessarily a food item as they'd probably just try to eat it.

Initially the quadcopter would need to be tethered, so they can get the hang of the effects of the controls and the noise of the rotors. Once they've worked out what the cyclic, collective, and rudders do, then they can progress to free- flying.
-- 8th of 7, May 21 2019


Marmosets go great on a barbecue. This would open the possibility of a dial-a-marmoset self-delivery service.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, May 22 2019


Nice, with heat hardened plastic tooth picks.
-- wjt, May 23 2019


Flying a helicopter is actually pretty difficult. It's like balancing an egg on the back of a spoon. The controls will have to be adjusted to up, down, left, right, forwards, backwards rather than direct control.
-- Voice, May 16 2021


<puzzled> May be I was thinking most 'copters would melt on a barbecue, hence some heat resistant toothpicks would be left after landing.

There is a suggestion that Cerebras will help with helicopter flight control.
-- wjt, May 19 2021



random, halfbakery