When I draw free-body diagrams of bird wings, I see the lift and thrust components clearly—their flight muscles are anchored to a keel for powerful downstrokes. Insect thoraxes are like little geared engines, contracting muscles to snap their wings back and forth. Bats, though, their wings are hands, and their flight is more like swimming, using flexible membrane to manipulate air.
In lab, we built a simple ornithopter model; getting even that crude hinge to flap properly made me respect how each creature's structure is perfectly tuned to its own kind of movement, na.
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