Overview

• In a Nature study, Polytechnique Montréal and French collaborators report a flat, slit‑patterned disk that morphs in flight and consistently reorients to descend vertically.
• The kirigami cuts make the disk deform into an inverted, porous bell that forces orderly airflow, and the payload attaches via a single central suspension line.
• Outdoor tests included a 0.5 m disk lowering a 1 kg water bottle from 60 m, reaching about 14 m/s compared with roughly 34 m/s without a parachute.
• Prototypes were made from plastic, paper or cardboard using laser or die-cutting, pointing to low-cost production for targeted aid drops and drone deliveries as mass manufacturing methods are refined.
• Because the porous design generates less drag than conventional canopies, human-scale use is impractical under current patterns—roughly a 100 m radius would be needed—so the team is pursuing new cut motifs, materials and programmed descent behaviors.