This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
If you listen to the actual talk the bird they are talking about is an albatross and they are simply saying that to improve efficiency you need to make the wings longer and slimmer but then the plane will not fit in current aiport gates so they are working on folding wings.
Wait, so what has been inspiring wings up to this?
Bumble bees.
Bumble bees are actually inspiring wing designs now. For a long time our best theories on aerodynamics couldn't explain how Bumblebees could fly. Given the relative mass and wing size the bumble bee they couldn't explain how a bumble bee could fly.
In the last decade or so they figured it out after putting enough bumble bees into wind tunnels. Bumblebees generate additional lift by creating little vortexes in the air. So now wing designers are trying to incorporate that effect into their designs.
Is this for real? Or a continuation of the meme?
Do they flap?
Depends how bad the turbulence is.
once.
Yes actually.
(They fold like a Navy carrier plane so they will fit at existing airport gates.)
Neat! But not quite the ornithopter I was hoping for.
Aviation peaked with the Spruce Goose, AKA the Birch Bitch, AKA the H-4 Hercules. Been downhill ever since....
Higher for hire
Ohh ee ohh!
Never heard it called the birch bitch.
Hell yeah the wood plane
I guess this is why so many boeing airplanes have been falling out the sky nowadays. They forgot and accidentally based their aiplanes on land dwelling vetrebrates.
Lol.
Lead engineer: "oh did you say bird, okay I thought you said bear."
I think it was a bee. After all everyone knows that bees can't fly.
So, they are building a DeHavaland-Canada Dash-7 ?
Yes, frozen gas powered Dash-7!
Rocket designs are worm(-with-diarrhea)-inspired!!
So not the picture in the thumbnail but a generic jet
To me "next generation" and propellers just don't mix, but I know nothing. Just want my jetpack.
Mentour Pilot did a great video on these open fan engines a few months ago. They’re somewhere between a turboprop and a turbofan. They’re better than traditional turboprops in that they’re able to handle higher cruise speeds like a turbofan, and they’re more efficient than turbofans due to a higher effective bypass ratio like a turboprop.
Plot twist: And they'll still pack their passengers like sardines.
