For many years researchers have been searching for ways to figure out what flight system is better: fixed wings like your normal everyday 747 or flapping wings like your normal everyday bird or insect. The answer depends on many aspects of the flight. If maneuverablilty is key in the flight then birds and insects have a huge advantage. If you want efficiency then most reaearchers would agree that a fixed-wing airplane has the advantage. According to studies, it is found that the flapping wing uses 27% power than a fixed-wing flight. Resarchers used a Fruit Flies dimensions to observe the interactions between an aerodynamic wake for a group of flapping motions and the characteristics, that are close to the same, of those observed in hovering insects.
This new finding could help the airplane industry tremendously. If it really works airline companies could save money on fuel and eventually even lower air fare. It will be some time before reaearchers get everything all figured out, due to the fact that there will be many hours spent on each experiment, and because each one will produce an infinate amount of possibilities. To learn more click here.
that is amazing, i would think that it would be cool to have aan airplane with flapping wings but i dont think many people would want to go on it becuase alot of things could go wrong and it is probably more dangerous. I think that we could save alot of gasoline doing that though.
Wow, in this article i found it interesting that the scientists found the two extremes of the two designs. The key point they listed for flapping wings was maneuverability. They used efficiency to describe a fixed wing flight. What if we found a happy-medium using maneuverability to be efficient? If using a flapping-winged plane uses 27% less energy, that’s over one fourth, even without a steady flight we could make this work.
If the only advantage of a fixed-wind flight is stability, we could easily come up with a new commercial design to keep passengers safe. However, the thought of traveling on an airplane that fluctuates through the air can be quite scary. It definitely is something to ponder over. If a flapping airplane is THAT much more efficient, it could enrich air travel.
Another concern is that we may travel at a slower speed on a flapping wing airplane. A slower speed would most likely be caused by maneuvering through the air instead of holding steady. This however, would not necessarily slow down a flight speed. It might make travel time even quicker. A slower speed WOULD indeed add to safety, and so would stable wings on an airplane.