Maneuverability and stability of flying insects

Leif Ristroph

Physics Department

Cornell University

The history of the science behind insect flight is littered with debunked myths. We now know that flapping wings and not gas-filled “air-cells” keep insects aloft, that no insect is capable of supersonicflight, and that aerodynamic theory predicts that bumblebees can indeed fly. Such myths arise from the scarcity of reliable flight observations, and I’ll introduce table-top experimental and lap-top analytical techniques that give insect flight data of unprecedented quantity and quality. Flight data on the common fruit fly reveal the biology and physics that underlie fundamental questions: How do insects use the flapping motions of their wings to orchestrate flight maneuvers? How do flyinginsects keep stable, up-right, and on-course? The actual solutions to insect flight maneuverability and stability are more marvelous and elegant than myths we might concoct.