Distributed electric propulsion and boundary layer ingestion are two attractive technologies to reduce the power consumption of fixed wing aircraft. Through careful distribution propulsive system elements, higher aerodynamic efficiency can be achieved, as well a lower risk total loss aircraft due foreign object damage. When used on wing, further reductions bending moment root even lead its stru...

Research in the field of Flapping Wing Micro Air Vehicle (FMAV) is an ongoing quest to master the natural flyers by mechanical means. The field is characterized by unsteady aerodynamics, whose knowledge is still developing. Birds and insects have different methods of producing lift and thrust for hovering and forward flight. Most birds, however, cannot hover. Wing tips of birds follow simple pa...

Conceptual wing design analysis methods are combined with numerical optimization to find minimum drag wings subject to constraints on lift, weight, pitching moment, and stall speed. Minimum drag tip extensions and winglets are compared using nonlinear optimization. The minimum drag trapezoidal tip device depends on the ratio of the maneuver lift coefficient to the cruise lift coefficient, altho...

Animal flight performance has been studied using models developed for man-made aircraft. For an aeroplane with fixed wings, the energetic cost as a function of flight speed can be expressed in terms of weight, wing span, wing area and body area, where more details are included in proportionality coefficients. Flying animals flap their wings to produce thrust. Adopting the fixed wing flight mode...

Within a conventional aircraft design process, the horizontal tail and vertical are generally sized via volume coefficient methods. In this manuscript, an improved method for conceptual based on multidisciplinary optimization (MDO) approach with stability control constraints has been developed. To develop method, first, requirements have derived from regulations fundamental functionalities of p...

Creating insect-scale flapping flight at the 0.1 gram size has presented significant engineering challenges. A particular focus has been on creating miniature machines which generate similar wing stroke kinematics as flies or bees. Key challenges have been thorax mechanics, thorax dynamics, and obtaining high powerto-weight ratio actuators. Careful attention to mechanical design of the thorax a...

We used videography to investigate direct lateral maneuvers, i.e. ‘sideslips’, of the hawkmoth Manduca sexta. M. sexta sideslip by rolling their entire body and wings to reorient their net force vector. During sideslip they increase net aerodynamic force by flapping with greater amplitude, (in both wing elevation and sweep), allowing them to continue to support body weight while rolled. To exec...

We used videography to investigate direct lateral maneuvers, i.e. 'sideslips', of the hawkmoth Manduca sexta. M. sexta sideslip by rolling their entire body and wings to reorient their net force vector. During sideslip they increase net aerodynamic force by flapping with greater amplitude, (in both wing elevation and sweep), allowing them to continue to support body weight while rolled. To exec...

—Little is known about the post-fledging period in most bird species, and almost nothing has been reported for the family Emberizidae, including New World sparrows. We report here, for the first time, the sizes (wing length and body weight) of, and the distances traveled by fledgling Grasshopper Sparrows within their hatch summer in a restored Atlantic Coastal grassland in Maryland. In the year...

Tumor suppressor p53 and inhibitor of DNA-binding/differentiation Id2 were examined after 7 or 21 days of wing weighting in fast patagialis (PAT) and slow anterior latissimus dorsi (ALD) wing muscles of young adult and old Japanese quails. The contralateral wing served as the intra-animal control. Seven days of loading increased PAT and ALD muscle weight by 28 and 96%, respectively, in young bi...