FLIGHT BIOMIMICRY

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRY

Flight evolved in:– Insects–Dinosaurs• Birds

–Mammals–Reptiles– Fishes– Seeds

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRY

Insects– Bees, Wasps, Hornets etc.– Beetles– Butterflies,Moths–Dragonflies– Fleas– Flies, Fruit, House, etc.

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRY

Dinosaurs– Skin Wings• Pterosaurs

– Feathers• Archaeopteryx• Birds

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRY

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRY

Mammals– Propelled• Bats•Humans

– Unpropelled• Lemurs• Possums• Squirrels

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRY

Reptiles– Unpropelled• Frogs• Snakes• Lizards

Fishes– Unpropelled• Flying fishes

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRY

Seeds– Unpropelled• Maple seeds

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRY

Flight Requirements– Lift•Wings/Fans• Light Weight

– Drag• Propulsion–Energy–Streamlining

– Stability

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRYWings

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRYWings

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRYWings

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRYWings

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRYWings

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRY Weight and Size–Heaviest flying birds• African Kori Bustard - 20kg– Wing span 2.5m

•Mute Swan – 20 kg– Wing span 2m

– Biggest wing span• Albatross – 12 kg –Wing span 3.6m

–Human• 80 kg–Arm span - 2m

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRY

Body Temperature– Mammals• 36 -39.5°C

– Birds•Mean levels of body temperatures (Tb)

for all birds are:(resting/active phase/high activity) 38.54 ± 0.96, 41.02 ± 1.29 and 43.85 ± 0.94°C

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRY Heart rate (resting)– Crow – 345 bpm– Sparrow – 460 bpm– Hummingbird – 615 bpm– Human – 70 bpm

Heart weight– Hawkbuzzard – 0.57%– Sparrow – 1.68%– Hummingbird – 2.37%– Human – 0.42%

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRY Human Power Capabilty–

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRY

Leonardo Da Vinci– Studied bird anatomy– Proposed flying and helicopter devices– Most of his legacy was lost for centuries

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRY George Cayley – early/mid 19th century– Determined that lift and propulsion should

be separated– Built and tested man carrying gliders that

could be towed by horse - used his coachman– Did not know about da Vinci

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRY George Cayley – early/mid 19th century– Used sails as wings– Understood the need

for stability– Used separate tail

structure

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRY

Otto Lilienthal – late 19th century– Experimented extensively with man-

carrying gliders – which he flew himself– Died in a crash of one of gliders

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRY

Motor Powered Flight– Wright brothers and others used aerofoil

sections that were similar to birds' wings– Use of wing warping, similar to bird

feather manipulation, to control flight

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRY

Human-powered flight

Numerous projects from 1930's onwards

1959 - Kremer prizes established

1934 Germany – flew about 20m

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRY

Weybridge man-powered aircraft – Dumbo 1971

Weight 56kg Altitude 1m Distance 45m

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRY

Weybridge man-powered aircraft – Dumbo

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRY

Brooklands Museum Concorde

However...

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRY Paul Macready 1960-70s– Appreciated that conventional aircraft

structures are too heavy for human-powered flight–Used new plastic films and minimal frames to

provide aircraft structure for his Gossamer Condor–Won the first Kremer prize – 2 km Figure of 8

course + high jump

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRY

Gossamer CondorWeight 32kg Power 0.35hp

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRY

Paul Macready 1960-70s– Developed a more structural aircraft– Gossamer Albatross won the second Kremer

prize – crossing the English Channel

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRY

Helicopter –

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRY Onithopters (Flapping Wings)– Lilenthal tried one (looks a handful)–University of Toronto succeeded

in maintaining flight after a towed takeoff Weight 43kg 0.94 hp

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRY Deadalus 1988– Developments by Macready's successors at

MIT produced a 32kg aircraft that flew 116 km from Crete to Santorini – A Greek champion cyclist

powered the aircraft at 0.27 hp for nearly 4 hours– The record still stands

How the Romansthought it was done...

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRY

FLIGHT BIOMIMICRY The Bumble bee– “According to aerodynamic principles, the

bumble bee cannot fly – but the bumble bee doesn't know this...”– This uses the humans' generally known data

on weight and wing size for rigid wings– The bumble bee knows better and gets more

lift than rigid wings by having oscillating (buzzing) flexible wings that do not stall as soon as rigid wings– Is this the next target of biomimicry?

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