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Captain America, the Hulk and Iron Man relied on the incredible 'Helicarrier' to launch their planes from the air in the 2012 The Avengers film.

And now, the US military is taking a leaf out of Marvel's comic after it invited people to submit ideas for future 'aircraft carriers in the sky.'

The hope is that these flying fortresses will someday carry, launch and recover multiple swarms of drones anywhere in the world.

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Darpa has invited people to submit ideas for future 'aircraft carriers in the sky.' The hopes is that these flying fortresses will someday carry, launch and recover multiple swarms of potentially deadly drones anywhere in the world. Artist's impression pictured

According to Darpa - the Pentagon's advanced military technology research agency - military air operations typically rely on large, manned, robust aircraft.

But such missions put these expensive aircraft, and their pilots, at risk.

And while small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) can reduce or eliminate such risks, they lack the speed, range and endurance of larger aircraft.

Darpa believes the solution is to create a flying Avengers-style platform that can rapidly carry these drones wherever needed.

The concept resembles Helicarrier (pictured) used in the 2012 film The Avengers. Captain America, the Hulk and Iron Man relied on this craft to launch their planes from the air

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'We want to find ways to make smaller aircraft more effective, and one promising idea is enabling existing large aircraft, with minimal modification, to become 'aircraft carriers in the sky',' said Dan Patt, Darpa project manager.

'We envision innovative launch and recovery concepts for new UAS designs that would couple with recent advances in small payload design and collaborative technologies.'

The new project, called Distributed Airborne Capabilities, is likely to use a plane similar to the B-52 Stratofortress bomber, B-1B Lancer bomber or C-130 Hercules cargo plane, according to a report by The Washington Post.

Darpa is also involved in another initiative, dubbed the Hydra Project, which is aiming to develop a network of undersea 'motherships', capable of deploying both underwater and aerial drones.

Meanwhile, the US Air Force is developing tiny unmanned drones that will fly in swarms, hover like bees, crawl like spiders and even sneak up on unsuspecting.

The Air Vehicles Directorate, a research arm of the Air Force, last year released a computer-animated video outlining the future capabilities of Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs).

'MAVs will become a vital element in the ever-changing war-fighting environment and will help ensure success on the battlefield of the future,' the video explained.

'Unobtrusive, pervasive, lethal - Micro Air Vehicles, enhancing the capabilities of the future war fighter.'

Air Force officials have already produced tiny remote-control prototypes - but they consume so much power that can only operate for a few minutes.

Researchers estimate that it will take several years of advances in battery technology to make the designs feasible.

This new project, called Distributed Airborne Capabilities, is likely to use a plane similar to the B-52 Stratofortress bomber, B-1B Lancer bomber (pictured) or C-130 Hercules cargo plane

Darpa, the Pentagon's Virgina-based military research agency, claims these flying fortresses will overcome the limits of speed, range and endurance typically associated with drones