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The ability to fly has been mankind’s dream for thousands of years, a goal toward which numerous scientists and researchers have expended labor, time, money and occasionally, their lives. Apart from a few very primitive experiments, it became possible to make self-propelled flying vehicles only in the early years of the 20th century.
Over the last 40 years, the scientific world has made it a priority to understand insects’ superior flying performance. The delicate and flawless architecture in insects’ flight mechanisms amaze researchers.
Some of these tiny creatures can hover suspended in the air, fly backwards, suddenly accelerate to more than 150 kilometers per hour (90 MPH) and engage in aerobatics far superior to even the best-trained fighter pilot. Insects have highly advanced mechanisms for flight, including perfect wings, a light exoskeleton, organs which perfectly regulate and control balance, and advanced warning systems that enable them to navigate and take off. Their bodies are covered by an exoskeleton that fulfill a set of functional roles including moving their legs and wings.
Airplanes operate by using the flow of air over their wings and are propelled with the assistance of combustion engines. Insects, on the other hand, have no such engines for takeoff, yet merely beating their wings gives them a powerful lift.25 In order to take off, most insects have to beat their thin wings very fast— and during flight, an average of several hundred times per second.26 Some insects beat their wings 600 times per second. Such rapid movement taking place in so short a time is impossible to replicate technologically.