Flailing and rigidly incurious iconoclasts in former days greatly enjoyed the bumblebee flight myth: the idea that engineers have proved that bumblebees can’t fly, or that bumblebee flight is not consistent with known aerodynamics. The idea is that bumblebee’s wings are too small for the size of their bodies. Since they do fly, there is obviously something interesting going on – bumblebees can generate more lift from their wings (a higher lift coefficient) than conventional aerodynamic methods should allow. They must be using some unconventional aerodynamics, if we can exploit the same aerodynamics we might be able to shift more air with smaller wings or propellers. Smaller cooling fans in computers, for example.
The aerodynamics of bumblebee flight were solved in the early 2000s, and modern computational fluid dynamics can accurately model insect flapping flight. Amazingly, the key is unsteady aerodynamics and leading edge vortices. Insects like bumblebees flap their wings so that a leading-edge-vortex forms above the wing and is stably held there for the duration of the downstroke. The high speed rotating flow within a vortex generates really low pressure – this is why air gets sucked down the middle of a plughole vortex. A great common, everyday human example of this, is when tea/coffee drinkers use leading edge vortices to mix milk and tea/coffee, forming the vortex over the back of the spoon by sweeping it across the teacup at an appropriate angle of attack relative to the tea.
Recent dragonfly drones, make use of those unconventional high lift aerodynamics to hover, in a stable manner and to cope with turbulence and gusty winds.
Arnaldo ~ Point is, myths asserted about 14.1 records can be either confirmed or disproven, proportionate to your acceptable arsenal of facts that reliably and indisputably make your case.
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