Smooth as it may look — especially when one’s zooming toward your head — the flight of the bumble bee is actually an awkward affair.
In fact, it’s surprising they even get off the ground.
According to a report in the journal “Experiments in Fluids” (in case you didn’t get your copy this month), an Oxford University study observed bumble bees in free flight within a smoke-filled wind tunnel, and found them to be “surprisingly inefficient.”
“Aerodynamically-speaking it’s as if the insect is ‘split in half’ as not only do its left and right wings flap independently but the airflow around them never joins up to help it slip through the air more easily,” the study leader said in a statement.
Most flying insects and birds rely on aerodynamic forces, but, with the bumble bee, it’s a matter of brute force — augmented, researchers say, by their diet of energy-rich nectar.
Posted by jwoestendiek May 10th, 2009 under Muttsblog, videos.
Tags: aerodynamics, bees, birds, brute, bumble bee, bumble bees, bumblebee, bumblebees, flight, fly, flying, force, insects, oxford university, research, smoke, study, tunnel, video, wings