Using high speed cameras, Tyson Hedrick, a biomechanist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, studied the hawk moth’s flight pattern, as well as its response to various sudden stimuli (e.g. firing a tiny cannonball at it) to see how well it can stabilize itself. He found that thanks its lift generating technique, the Manduca sexta can almost instantly revert back to its initial position, which might help engineers develop someday wing-flapping UAVs. The whole video is extremely interesting, not only because of the great insights it shares, but for the moth’s stunning grace with which it hovers. Check out the video below.
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[Science Friday]
