What is that thing and why does it have a machine gun?

It's obviously a lightweight reconnaissance aircraft powered by bipedal locomotion and hungry determination, co-developed by DuPont and NASA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gossamer_Albatross

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gossamer_Penguin

flying loose formation during aerial refueling flight trials. As you can see from the Air Force logo, they're the Obama administration's prototype "green" replacements for the F-22 and F-35. Contract talks are still pending, but inside sources report that they're on offer for only twice the unit cost of the "eco-unfriendly" jets they'll replace.

The pilot/powerplant should really get her cleats into the pedals, though. It's much more efficient pedaling that way.

Artist's comment:

Because there is no fossil fuel in the future, the American U.S. air force and NASA develop a combined solar cell man-powered bi-plane (bicycle plane) for tactical air support...

I like the refueling broom idea.

Didn't notice this before, but apparently post #395830 is the future of the TGV/bullet train too? :p

Political commentary? On MY Danbooru...?

That being said, besides being funny, it's also extremely well-drawn. Transparent plastic must be a bitch.

Hmm, I like it. But it must be awful difficult for the cyclist to refuel via baguette midflight.

BakaHoushi said:
Political commentary? On MY Danbooru...?

That being said, besides being funny, it's also extremely well-drawn. Transparent plastic must be a bitch.

Yes, because it's hard to draw a thin white outline with subtle refraction lines which, mind you, are also white!
/sarcasm.

The Seagulls

They steal our full

This is awesome.

Heh, well thats original.

Dreadhawk said:
Yes, because it's hard to draw a thin white outline with subtle refraction lines which, mind you, are also white!
/sarcasm.

actually, manage to give the impression of the tension and texture of the material can be quite maddening.

Especially since they aren't lines, but they are actually giving the illusion of volume and they have varying degrees of saturation instead of being solid colors.

[deleted]

Crotalus said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gossamer_Albatross

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gossamer_Penguin

flying loose formation during aerial refueling flight trials. As you can see from the Air Force logo, they're the Obama administration's prototype "green" replacements for the F-22 and F-35

I say it's a low cost replacement for the Predator drone which costs about 4 million USD per unit.
The experiment wasn't successful as it didn't have the endurance of the predator except when flown by Lance Armstrong.

Still except for the gun it's a pretty accurate depiction of the Gossamer albatross it even has the NASA worm logo from the late 70s.

The same guy who designed it also would later help design solar powered drones such as helios.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_Prototype