If you ’ve ever watched a hummingbird sipping off at nectar , you ’ll have notice those unbelievable wing that beat so fast , up to80 flaps per secondfor some mintage , that the bird hovers seemingly motionless in the air . In fact , hummingbird are actually the only birds that cansustain hovering ; a unequaled feature that comes at a high industrious cost .
But what determines the efficiency of this demeanour , and how does that compare with man - made flying auto ? These are questions Stanford and Wageningen University scientists were slap-up to resolve , who lately published their findings in theJournal of the Royal Society Interface .
Using helicopter and aeroplane design theory , the investigator predicted that the hummingbirdwing face ratio(ration of the length of wings to their width ) mold aerodynamic efficiency . However , the flight public presentation of a hummingbird is particularlydifficult to measuregiven the fact that the forces generated are so small .
To overcome this , the researchers useddetached wingsfrom museum specimens and placed them in an apparatus called a offstage thread maker to measure drag . The squad then meld this data with recordings taken from wild hummingbird which allowed them to determine how much business leader the hummingbird brawniness required to confirm brood . Next , they compare performance measurements with that of the homo - made blade of a micro helicopter called a Black Hornet in rescript to determine which was more efficient .
The researchers report several interesting findings . They discovered that , true to their original hypothesis , the power required to get linger ishighly dependenton wing aspect ratio . During the down stroke , annex that had larger prospect ratios requiredmuch less powerthan those with pocket-size ratios .
While most hummingbird wings performed likewise to the helicopter , they find that one species– theAnna ’s hummingbird– was27%more effective .
“ This show that if we plan the wing well , we can build pilotless aircraft that brood as efficiently , if not more efficiently , as hummingbirds , ” trail investigator David Lentink toldBBC News . “ understandably we are not even close to hummingbirds in many other design metric function , such as lead gust margin , visual flight control through clutter , to name a few . But if we focalize on flowing efficiency , we are close than we perhaps ever imagined possible . ”
[ ViaBBCandScience ]
[ Header image " manlike Broad - tailed Hummingbird at feeder , " by Mark Watson , via Flickr , used in accordance with CC BY - NC - ND 2.0 ]
