Scale must be considered in this assessment, as the Odonata order contains relatively large species, particularly in terms of wingspan. ĭragonflies have been shown in quantitative studies to demonstrate superior flight performance compared to most other insects.
It is a life of aerial combat, pursued for 300 million years, by the oldest extant form of flying insect, the archetypal member of Palaeoptera. Finally, feeding is an effort in pursuit and counter-evasion against prey animals, the evolution of which is also locked in a deadly loop with the dragonfly’s evolving flight performance. Most combat is over a water surface, under which predators lurk and from which a dragonfly is unlikely to extract itself. Throughout all of this aerial combat, aerial predators are a constant threat, requiring defensive air combat maneuvers at regular intervals. Upon successfully overcoming the female’s defences against weak fliers, successful mating often requires the males to carry the female’s inert mass. Mating requires an aerial pursuit of females that innately stresses the flight performance of males. This involves perpetual, dangerous, aerial combat against male rivals, with only the best aviators achieving the territory needed to breed. Typically, males establish and fight to maintain a territory with favourable oviposition sites after a short period of orientation following emergence. We assert that an optimal flapping wing drone, capable of efficiency in all modes of flight with high performance upon demand, might look somewhat like an abstract dragonfly.įrom emergence until death, the flight performance of the dragonfly is tested. We show that a theoretical understanding of flight systems and an appreciation of the detail of biological implementations may be key to achieving an outcome that matches the performance of natural systems. New findings in dynamics of flapping, practical actuation technology, wing design, and flight control are presented and connected. We chart one approach to achieving the next step in drone technology through systems theory and an appreciation of how biomimetics can be applied.
We will explore the fundamental principles of dragonfly flight to allow for a comparison between proposed flapping wing technological solutions and a flapping wing organism. Dragonflies particularly are capable of efficiency in all modes of flight. We discuss the opportunity for flapping wing drones inspired by large insects to perform these mixed missions. The increasing presence of chimeras suggests that their mix of vertical takeoff, hover, and more efficient cruise is invaluable to many end users. “Chimera” craft combine fixed wing and rotary wing characteristics while being substantially less efficient than both. Many drone platforms have matured to become nearly optimal flying machines with only modest improvements in efficiency possible.
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