Living Things and Flight Technology

The flawless designs in birds have an enormous influence on the development of

aviation. Indeed, the Wright brothers, regarded as the inventors of the airplane, used the
vulture wing as a model when building the wings of their Kitty Hawk plane.

Birds are perfect flying machines. Any vehicle needs to be fairly light in order
to fly. This applies right down to the screws and bolts used to attach the wings. This
explains why airplane manufacturers always try to use special materials that are light
but also strong and resistant to blows.

Early Model of an Airplane

A new Objective in Aeronautics:

As they fly, birds can use their wings in the most efficient way possible,
automatically changing to deal with factors like temperature and wind. Currently,
companies engaged in airplane technology are actively seeking to develop designs
that make use of these features.
NASA, Boeing and the U.S. Air Force have designed a flexible wing, made of
glass fibers that can change its shape according to data from a computer inside the
plane. This computer will also be able to process data from measuring equipment
regarding flight conditions such as temperature, wind force, etc.
Airbus, another firm working in this field, is trying to build adaptive wings that
can change shape according to prevailing conditions, in order to reduce fuel
consumption as much as possible.

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Silent Airplanes:
Owls silently glide at night to catch
their prey unawares, then suddenly swoop
down. According to the findings of
researchers at NASAs Langley Research
Center in Virginia, an owls flight feathers
unlike most birds, the flight feathers of
whose have a sharp, clean edgehave soft
fringes that decrease the turbulence, and
thus the noise, of air as it flows over wing.
Military designers hope that stealth
airplanes can be made even stealthier by
imitating the owls wings. It is hoped that
planes now invisible to radar will be
completely silent. (Robin Meadows, "Designs
from Life," Zooger, July/August 1999.)

Owls and sleath airplanes

Takeoff and Landing:

During takeoff and landing, birds prefer to face

into the wind so that they expend less energy. Airport
runways are also sited to face prevailing winds, so
that planes expend less energy during takeoff.

Aviation Research:
During a planes flight, pressure changes at the wings edge can form small
vortexesair currents at the edges of the wings that can impede flight performance.
Aviation research studies have revealed that when vultures fly, they open their
quill feathersthe large feathers at the edge of the winglike the fingers of a hand.
From this observation, researchers thought of taking it as a model to make small
metal ailerons and test them in flight. Using these, they hoped it would be possible to
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reduce the vortexes unwelcome effects on a plane by setting up a series of smaller

vortexes to replace the large ones that had previously been causing problems.
Experiments proved this idea to be correct, and they are now seeking to implement it
in real aircraft.

Vulture

Future projection

British B2 Bomber:
Butterflies have many attractive colors in its wings, but there is no color
pigment lies in their wings. The secret lies in the reflection of light. Butterfly wings
are covered with transparent scales which deceive the eye.
Butterfly wings contain layers which act just like soap bubble. All colors
disappears expect some color, due to the reflection of light from their wings. Modern
science is using this surprising feature of this butterfly.
This attracted the attention of British defense agency. They will make the
fighter planes from the materials used in butter fly wings to deceive the enemy. The
color of the plane will change with respect to area color.

British B-2 Bomber changes color with respect to the environment

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