Insect flight is vastly different than the aerodynamics engineers learn around aircraft. That’s particularly apparent looking at these tiny moths taking off and flying in slow motion. Almost every feature seems, at first glance, aerodynamically wasteful. Hairy, scaly surfaces instead of smooth ones? Relatively small wings for their body size? Moths break our engineering intuition.
For moths, flight is an inherently unsteady process. Every stroke of its wings cups and flings fluid away in an effort to generate enough lift to stay aloft. Notice how the wings flex with each stroke. Part of the moth’s efficiency comes from that flexibility, even though keeping wings relatively stiff is the norm for engineering larger fixed-wing craft. And those hairy surfaces? Not only can they help camouflage insects; they keep them hydrophobic so that water bounces off them. (Video and image credit: Ant Lab/A. Smith)
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