Abstract

Since the dawn of time man has been fascinated with how birds and insects fly. Early attempts to replicate flight were often inspired by nature’s flapping wing typology. With the advent of powered flight there was a proliferation of aerodynamic thinking directed towards fixed wing aircraft. Recently there has been a need to develop small autonomous aircraft known as Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) for novel applications such as surveillance and planetary exploration. The famous Swiss Engineer Jakob Ackeret is often credited with exclaiming that according to conventional aerodynamic theory, bumblebees shouldn’t be able to fly! In our work at CUED , we are taking inspiration from nature in our quest to find where the missing lift has gone with the hope that we can design more effective flapping wing MAVs.