UAV - Norske Black Hornet nær kolibrier i ytelse

Hummingbirds Hover Better than Black Hornet

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When it comes to flight, nature just has the edge on engineers. This is according to a study comparing hummingbirds with one of the world’s most advanced micro-helicopters. Researchers found that – in terms of the power they require to lift their weight – the best hummingbird was over 20% more efficient than the helicopter.

The “average Joe” hummingbird, however, was on par with the helicopter, showing “how far flight engineering has come”.

The findings are published in the Royal Society journal Interface.

Lead researcher Prof David Lentink, from Stanford University in California, explained that the flight performance of a hummingbird – the only bird capable of sustained hovering – was extremely difficult to measure.

“Imagine a 4g bird,” he said. “The forces they generate are tiny.

“As a result the drag of a hummingbird wing has never been measured accurately.”

Drag is the force opposing the upward force of lift that birds’ wings generate by flapping.

Prof Lentink and his team wanted to understand if feathered hummingbird wings were more efficient – using less power to overcome drag – than the engineered blades of a helicopter of a similarly tiny scale.

He and his colleagues compared the birds’ performance to an advanced micro-drone called the Black Hornet - a 16g helicopter used for surveillance by British troops in Afghanistan.