Daily Archives: October 11, 2011

Stanford’s Perching Drones Land Vertically

Who would think that an airplane could land on the side of your house? The guys at Stanford would. Stanford University’s Biomimetics Laboratory has been working on a small scale fixed wing aircraft that can perch on the side of a building, or just about any vertical surface. The plane’s “landing gear” consists of flexible […]

AeroVironment, Inc.’s Nano Hummingbird

The flight of a hummingbird has been fascinating to study since it is able to fly backwards and hover. The amount of energy it must use to flap its wings 12-90 times per second seems impossible for a creature its size. It  also manages to control its flight so precisely that it can  point its […]

Nature’s Mysterious Flyer

One of the most mysterious gliding animals that can be found in nature is the flying squid. Flying squid are cephalopod mulluscs and of the Ommatostrephidae family. Several species include the Humboldt squid, the Neon Flying squid, and the Japanese flying squid. They can range in size from 10 cm long to 100 cm long. […]

Penguins Can’t Fly?

It is well known that the penguin is a very unique type of bird that lacks the ability to fly.  Many scientists believe that they are descendents of very early types of birds, and that they were forced to adapt to living in the water in order to survive.  Thus, their “wings” that were once […]

The Seabreacher

So far in the course, we have primarily focused on scientists and engineers drawing inspiration from nature to better understand the concept of lift and hopefully master the skill of flight. We have operated under the assumption that the principles from most of the studies we have seen thus far can only be applied to […]