How the Dragonfly could shape the future of air travel
‘There’s nothing new under the sun’ says the proverb and looking at nature, it’s hard to disagree. In fact, mankind’s most thrilling innovations have been inspired by living organisms, particularly in the field of flight.
Take the dragonfly for instance. Scientists are impressed by its ability to glide, staying airborne for half a minute at a time with no perceptible loss of altitude. This remarkable feat is due to an aerodynamic wing that no aircraft manufacturer has yet been able to match.
The dragonfly’s wafer-thin wing is corrugated with pleats that prevent bending and give the insect a powerful lift, allowing it to glide effortlessly for relatively long periods. According to New Scientist magazine, this is because “air circulates in the cavities between pleats, creating areas of very low drag that aid the lift-generating airflow across the wing.”
Possibilities for robotically controlled equipment are awesome. Aerospace engineer Abel Vargas and his team have studied the dragonfly wing and believe that “biologically inspired wings are very relevant in the design of micro-aerial vehicles.”
When equipped with cameras or measuring instruments, flying robots the size of a palm can be used in many practical ways such as weather or pollution monitoring, mapping new territory, and acquiring data from disaster zones.
A ‘dragonfly’ prototype is already being developed. Weighing 120 milligrams and 6 centimetres wide, this microdone (or micro-aerial vehicle) has thin silicon wings powered by electricity, simulating the wings of a dragonfly.
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