About two and a half years ago, Joe Moore, Eddie Tunstel, and Robert Osiander -- robotics researchers in the Research and Exploratory Development Department of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory -- had an idea: create a fixed-wing, unmanned vehicle that could autonomously operate underwater and then propel itself fast enough to make the transition into the air, becoming an autonomous flying aerial vehicle. However, little work had been done to develop such a platform, known as a fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial-Aquatic Vehicle (UAAV). To study how such a UAAV might work, they looked to one of nature's unique multi-domain creatures: the peculiar animal known as the flying fish. Their concept vehicle -- now dubbed Flying Fish -- became an independent research and development proposal, and eventually a working prototype. "Our challenge was to see if we could use a single motor propeller combination to be able to achieve water-to-air transition," says Moore.