One of the weirdest pieces of military research at the moment has got to be the COM-BAT. The concept is a bat-inspired spy-plane, six inches long, to gather data from “urban combat zones”.

We really love the fact that the bat will be solar powered: even war’s environmentally friendly these days.

But for some really green toy planes, check out these babies! They’re currently flying over the Antarctic, analyzing ice. They might be powered by lithium ion batteries (the same ones that make iPods explode) but they’re going to help refine climate change models.

And the biggest plus? They’re launched by a giant elastic band!

So stop making war planes, people. We prefer voyages of discovery. All the Antarctic planes are missing is a catchy name.  How about calling them the greenflies? We think they can take the COM-BAT any day.

(Image: from Octoberdog’s flickr stream)