MIT engineers fly first-ever plane with no moving parts (2018)
I've been birding over the pandemic and learning about how they fly. Watching them, it starts to become clear just how skilled and efficient they are.<p>This tech demo is amazing, but my mind immediately compares it to things like the ruby-throated hummingbird migration, in which a 5 gram bird[0] flies 500+ MILES nonstop over open water, on maybe 2 grams of fat storage.<p>Then they feed by hovering so accurately that they can reliably thread a 1/8" beak into a moving 1/4" target.<p>They can do this directly into 20 mph headwinds [0]. Also in rainstorms where they are constantly getting pelted with their bodyweight in wet missiles every few seconds.<p>They can also fly 30mph in level flight, which in body lengths / second is ~4x times faster than an SR-71.<p>[0] US nickels weigh 5 grams, for comparison.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.kqed.org/science/28759/what-happens-when-you-put-a-hummingbird-in-a-wind-tunnel" rel="nofollow">https://www.kqed.org/science/28759/what-happens-when-you-put...</a>