Aerodynamic Mechanisms of Animal Flight

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Whether winding through alpine meadows, migrating across continents, or circling garbage cans, insects display impressive aerodynamic agility. Although the science of aeronautics is sophisticated enough to design airliners, space shuttles, and stealth fighters, scientists are only just beginning to understand the aerodynamic mechanisms that enable tiny insects to fly and maneuver. This research program builds upon recent discoveries using a variety of experimental and theoretical techniques to construct a comprehensive theory of animal flight. The techniques used in this investigation include three-dimensional high speed videography, with which it is possible to capture the complex wing motions of tiny insects such as fruit flies as they actively steer and maneuver. The research also employs a giant robotic model of flapping insect wings, immersed in a 3 ton tank of mineral oil. By 'replaying' the wing and body motion of real insects on the large robot, the researchers can directly measure the flows and forces created by flapping wings. Through such experiments it will be possible to determine not simply how insects manage to stay in the air, but how they carefully manipulate aerodynamic forces to actively steer and maneuver. Whereas much previous work on insect flight has focused on a small number of species, this research will investigate how the aerodynamic mechanisms used by insects vary with body size, wing shape, and flight speed. Because the physics of air flow can change with scale, this broad comparative analysis is necessary to construct a comprehensive theory of insect flight.Insects are among the most diverse groups of organisms on the planet, and their flight behavior plays a central role in their extraordinary success. Thus, by forging a clearer picture of how they fly, this research will greatly extend our understanding of this ecologically and agriculturally important group of animals. In addition, just as with complex weather systems, predicting the complex patterns of forces and flows created by flapping wings represents a challenging benchmark for computer simulations in the important and challenging field of Fluid Mechanics - the branch of Physics that determines such diverse phenomena as aerodynamics, heat flow, weather, and global warming. By providing experimental verification of the solutions to complicated flow problems, this research will help mathematicians around the world improve the accuracy of their computer models. Further, knowledge gathered in this study on the aerodynamics of flapping wings will provide new and creative design concepts for the aeronautics industry. Lessons from insect aerodynamics and sensory physiology are already being used in the design of small autonomous air vehicles, whose potential applications include search and rescue operations and planetary exploration. By moving towards a more comprehensive theory of flapping flight aerodynamics, this research will present engineers with a useful body of theory for the development of novel aircraft.