They said that the reason that these 'aerodynamically unproprtional'
animals were still able to fly, had to do with the fact that the fierce
beating of their wings created a high pressure cushion of air that they
stayed aloft on. Well, I can see how this might work close to the ground,
as this is called 'ground effect' when applied to a plane. An aircraft
'feels' the affect upon its underside, of the very forces it creates by
moving through the air, reflected off of the ground. However, when a plane
moves up, it takes itself out of the 'sphere of influence' of 'ground
effect'. And, by my way of figuring, the same should hold true for these
little fellas too! UNLESS, there is some sort of 'micro-aeronautical
dynamics', that haven't as yet been fully explained. It seems to me that
any high pressure created by their beating wings is going to sink away from
them. And I don't see how that 'cushion' is going to stay around long
enough for them to hover, like they do!
Those scientist may have well discovered this new set of rules; but it lost
something in the recounting of the news story. You know how they 'dumb
down' everything for public consumption. Perhaps that happened here.
Stephen Brummitt
dev@icx.net