Post by jonsdigs on Jul 6, 2007 8:02:18 GMT -5
Finding secrets of bats' flight could change military aircraft
By Bryan Bender, Boston Globe Staff | July 6, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Since the Wright brothers took to the skies a century ago, aerospace engineers have studied bird flight as the baseline for designing aircraft.
But a special Pentagon research project underway in Providence could change that.
A team of engineers and biologists at Brown University has discovered that bats, the mysterious nocturnal mammals that are guided by sound and helped inspire Dracula and Batman, may hold the secret to more efficient flying machines.
The Air Force has taken notice of Brown's work. It will invest $6 million in the project over the next 2 1/2 years, in the hope of using the research to design future military aircraft.
Research so far has found that bats can carry up to 50 percent of their weight and execute airborne maneuvers that would make a bird or plane fall out of the sky. Moreover, scientists believe the hundreds of tiny sensors covering bat wings could be the key to their most impressive airborne maneuvers, a discovery that engineers could replicate with networks of sensors and computers on military aircraft.
Full Story
By Bryan Bender, Boston Globe Staff | July 6, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Since the Wright brothers took to the skies a century ago, aerospace engineers have studied bird flight as the baseline for designing aircraft.
But a special Pentagon research project underway in Providence could change that.
A team of engineers and biologists at Brown University has discovered that bats, the mysterious nocturnal mammals that are guided by sound and helped inspire Dracula and Batman, may hold the secret to more efficient flying machines.
The Air Force has taken notice of Brown's work. It will invest $6 million in the project over the next 2 1/2 years, in the hope of using the research to design future military aircraft.
Research so far has found that bats can carry up to 50 percent of their weight and execute airborne maneuvers that would make a bird or plane fall out of the sky. Moreover, scientists believe the hundreds of tiny sensors covering bat wings could be the key to their most impressive airborne maneuvers, a discovery that engineers could replicate with networks of sensors and computers on military aircraft.
Full Story
