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Who’s to say humans didn’t copy the ants? I’ve always been fascinated by what I call “uninventable inventions”. These are things we use commonly but never had t

Who’s to say humans didn’t copy the ants? I’ve always been fascinated by what I call “uninventable inventions”. These are things we use commonly but never had the chance to invent ourselves due to their common occurrence in nature. Examples are: the fluid carrying tube (since arteries would easily be observed in killed animals), the sphere (think eye balls), or wings to fly with (i.e. the general shape of a modern jetliner).

kortilla 7y ago
Interestingly the wings on a jetliner (and man-made planes in general) don’t really look anything like wings on birds or insects nor do they function in the same way. In fact, one of the big breakthroughs in flight was to stop trying to make them like birds. Planes fly like birds in the same way that submarines swim like fish, i.e. they don’t.
- Retric 7y ago
  Many aspects are. A rounded leading edge cross-section and a sharp trailing edge cross-section. Upward slopping Dihedral and rear slopping wing. Tail feathers and aircraft’s tails. Winglets are similar to features on many bird species, though this is most obvious during down flapping.
- matt-attack 7y ago
  You might be right to 2nd order, but the fact is it's no accident that these two objects look so similar: https://imgur.com/a/dKLQQ2j https://imgur.com/a/dKLQQ2j
  - caconym_ 7y ago
    Even better is the similarity between a bird seen side-on in level gliding flight and the same view of a B2. I tried to get an image link to put here but the internet has become impossible to use, so just Google it I guess. It seems that the biggest difference between bird wings and airplane wings is that the former use a bell-shaped (per Prandtl) span loading that induces proverse yaw on on roll and allows them to turn without separate yaw input. The elliptical span loading used by the vast majority of man-made aircraft causes adverse yaw, which is probably the biggest reason most aircraft need rudders. Even the B2 has split-aileron drag rudders at its wingtips for this reason.
    - matt-attack 7y ago
      Wow thanks for that! For anyone being lazy, please take a look: https://www.reddit.com/r/MilitaryPorn/comments/dxwi51/b2_stealth_bomber_side_view_1015_x_1027/ https://www.reddit.com/r/MilitaryPorn/comments/dxwi51/b2_ste...

kortilla 7y ago

Interestingly the wings on a jetliner (and man-made planes in general) don’t really look anything like wings on birds or insects nor do they function in the same way. In fact, one of the big breakthroughs in flight was to stop trying to make them like birds. Planes fly like birds in the same way that submarines swim like fish, i.e. they don’t.

Retric 7y ago
Many aspects are. A rounded leading edge cross-section and a sharp trailing edge cross-section. Upward slopping Dihedral and rear slopping wing. Tail feathers and aircraft’s tails. Winglets are similar to features on many bird species, though this is most obvious during down flapping.
matt-attack 7y ago
You might be right to 2nd order, but the fact is it's no accident that these two objects look so similar: https://imgur.com/a/dKLQQ2j https://imgur.com/a/dKLQQ2j
- caconym_ 7y ago
  Even better is the similarity between a bird seen side-on in level gliding flight and the same view of a B2. I tried to get an image link to put here but the internet has become impossible to use, so just Google it I guess. It seems that the biggest difference between bird wings and airplane wings is that the former use a bell-shaped (per Prandtl) span loading that induces proverse yaw on on roll and allows them to turn without separate yaw input. The elliptical span loading used by the vast majority of man-made aircraft causes adverse yaw, which is probably the biggest reason most aircraft need rudders. Even the B2 has split-aileron drag rudders at its wingtips for this reason.
  - matt-attack 7y ago
    Wow thanks for that! For anyone being lazy, please take a look: https://www.reddit.com/r/MilitaryPorn/comments/dxwi51/b2_stealth_bomber_side_view_1015_x_1027/ https://www.reddit.com/r/MilitaryPorn/comments/dxwi51/b2_ste...