Re: Bugs and flight was Re: Questions regarding NAC ground units, was SG IF morale

Glenn M Wilson wrote:

> On Mon, 3 Dec 2001 17:13:45 +1100  Beth.Fulton@csiro.au writes:
> >G'day,
> >
> >> I know about BumbleBees and their aerodynamics but Butterfly Flight
> >> Phenomenon?
> >
> >The lift to thrust ratio and other features of the take-off/landing
> >and
> >short flight dynamics of some insects (e.g. butterflies) break the
> >rules of
> >flight/energy use etc as they're understood by current engineers and
> >physicts.... the insects shouldn't be able to do it they way they do,
> >but
> >they obviously do ;)
> >
> >Cheers
> >
> >Beth
>
> The Bumble bee supposedly was 'proven' by an engineer to be incapable
of
> flight until another (smarter) Engineer examined the Bumble bee not as
an
> airplane but a 'helicopter'  model.  At least that is the urban myth I
> was taught... <grin>

The bumblebee cannot fly if it has two pairs of wings (which it does),
but
could fly if it only had one pair of wings with the combined area of its
two
pairs of wings.  Close examination of the bumblebee's wings shows that
the
leading edge of the rear pair has a zipperlike set of structures that
mates
to a similar set of structures on the trailing edge of the forward
wings.
Voila! Bumblebees knew all along that they could never fly if they were
as
large as they are, and had two pairs of wings, so while still smaller
than
their current size, they combined their two pairs of wings into one, to
allow
them to continue to get bigger.

[I watch too much television, but at least my viewing is replete with