  Telescope arrays allow high-performance wide-field imaging systems to be
built more quickly and at lower cost than conventional telescopes. Distributed
aperture telescopes (the premier example of which is the Dragonfly Telephoto
Array) are a special type of array in which all telescopes point at roughly the
same position in the sky. In this configuration the array performs like a large
and optically very fast single telescope with unusually good control over
systematic errors. In a few key areas, such as low surface brightness imaging
over wide fields of view, distributed aperture telescopes outperform
conventional survey telescopes by a wide margin. In these Proceedings we
outline the rationale for distributed aperture telescopes, and highlight the
strengths and weaknesses of the concept. Areas of observational parameter space
in which the design excels are identified. These correspond to areas of
astrophysics that are both relatively unexplored and which have unusually
strong breakthrough potential.
